The Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences announced today that the Gael García Bernal starrer Desierto, the sophomore film by Jonás Cuarón will be the country's candidate to the Oscars. The film was produced by the director—who co-wrote the acclaimed film Gravity—along with his father, Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón.
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival exactly one year ago and is having its U.S. theatrical release on October 14, by the hand of STX Entertainment. Mexico has been nominated eight times for Best Foreign Language Film—most recently in 2010 with Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful—but has never won the coveted statuette.
In Cuarón's immigration suspense thriller what begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.
