[October 4, 2014, UPDATE] Cuba has become the last Latin American country to announce its Oscar entry, the Caribbean island is submitting Ernesto Daranas' Behavior / Conducta to the foreign-language film competition for the 87th annual Academy Awards. A breakout hit in Cuba, the film follows Chala, an 11-years-old kid who lives with his drug addict mother. He trains fighting dogs for a living, and this world of violence sometimes surfaces when he is at school. Carmela is his sixth grade teacher, for whom the boy feels affection and respect. One day she becomes ill and musts give up the school for several months. The new teacher, unable to understand Chala’s behavior, sends him off to a reeducation school. When Carmela returns, she rebels against this measure and other transformations her class has been subjected to. The relation-ship between the veteran teacher and the boy grows stronger, but this mutual commitment will jeopardize their continuance at the school.
Cuba has been sending Oscar candidates since 1978, being the last time in 2011. Only one Cuban film has ever earned an Oscar nomination, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío's Strawberry and Chocolate / Fresa y chocolate in 1994. This year 76 countries submitted Oscar entries, breaking an all-time record.
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[October 1, 2014, UPDATE] Costa Rica has announced its Oscar candidate as today is the submission deadline for the foreign-language film category for the 87th annual Academy Awards. The Central American country has selected Red Princesses / Princesas rojas by Laura Astorga, which had its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. The film follows 11-year-old Claudia and younger sister Antonia are the daughters of Sandinista activists who are forced to flee Nicaragua for Costa Rica in the 80s. They move from place to place, from house to house, from school to school as their parents continue their underground activities. But when their mother betrays the movement leaving for Miami with their money, their father is forced to balance his paternal duties with his revolutionary ones. Told from Claudia’s point of view, this coming-of-age story captures the anxiety and uncertainty of growing up in an ideologically charged household. This is the third time that Costa Rica has an Oscar submission after Caribe (2005) and Of Love and Other Demons (2010).
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[September 30, 2014, UPDATE] As it was largely expected, Argentina has selected Damián Szifron's Wild Tales / Relatos salvajes as its contender for the 2015 Academy Awards in the foreign-language film category. Starring Ricardo Darín, Oscar Martinez, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Darío Grandinetti, Wild Tales was the only Latin American film at the last edition of Cannes' main competition, and one of the most popular local movies in the history of the South American country.
Inequality, injustice and the demands of the world we live in cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people. Vulnerable in the face of a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, the characters of Wild Tales cross the thin line that divides civilization and barbarism. A lover's betrayal, a return to a repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control.
Wild Tales has been picked by different media outlets as the Latin American film with the most possibilities to earn an Oscar nomination. With six nominations and two wins -most recently in 2009 with The Secret in their Eyes, Argentina is the Latin American country with the best Oscar record.
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[September 30, 2014, UPDATE] Ecuador has selected the film Silencio en la tierra de los sueños / Silence in Dreamland, the debut feature film by Tito Molina, as its 2015 Oscar candidate. Starring Bertha Naranjo, Ney Moreira and Martín Rodríguez, follows an old lady, who after the death of her husband, she lives in solitude. She's made routine her best friend and faith her shelter. Only in her dreams she runs away from those four walls to a timeless magic land where the sea speaks without using words. Her days gobetween the real life and dreams... until a stray dog comes to her door.
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[September 24, 2014, UPDATE] Uruguay has announced today Alvaro Brechner's sophomore film Mr. Kaplan as it's Oscar entry for the foreign-language film category. Starring Héctor Noguera, Néstor Guzzini, Nidia Telles and Rolf Becker, the film follows Jacobo Kaplan, who lives an ordinary life. Nothing differentiates him from his other Jewish friends who fled Europe to South America because of WWII. Turning 70 has had a strange effect on him: he refuses to accept he is getting old. Grumpy, fed up with the new rabbi, his community and his family’s lack of interest in its own heritage, he embarks on an unusual and quixotic project: to capture a quiet and elderly German man, the owner of a run-down beach restaurant, whom, he is convinced, is a runaway Nazi.
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[September 18, 2014, UPDATE] Mateo, the directorial debut feature film by María Gamboa has been selected as Colombia's Oscar entry for this year. The film follows Mateo, a 16 year-old kid who collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle and uses his pay to help out his mother, who grudgingly accepts the ill-gotten money out of need. They live by themselves in the poor, violent neighbourhoods alongside the Magdalena River valley in Colombia. To prove his worth, Mateo agrees to infiltrate a local theatre group in order to uncover its members’ political activities. As he becomes enthralled with the free-flowing creative lifestyle of the troupe, his uncle escalates demands on him to produce incriminating information on the actors. Under pressure, Mateo must make difficult choices.
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[September 18, 2014, UPDATE] Brazil has announced that Daniel Ribeiro's directorial debut The Way He Looks / Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho has been selected as the country's Oscar candidate. The film, which had its word premiere at the Berlin Film Festival last February is the coming-of-age story of Leonardo, a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a cute new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans. The film is distributed in the U.S. by Strand Releasing.
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[September 17, 2014, UPDATE] Panama is joining the Oscar race for the very first time, having selected the documentary feature film Invasion / Invasión by Abner Benaim as its candidate for the foreign-language category. Utilizing a combination of reenactments and interviews, the Panamanian filmmaker explores the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama and discovers that many of his fellow countrymen seem to have somehow forgotten the event happened at all. By providing a vital exploration of an apparently willful collective amnesia, Invasion also holds a mirror to the present. The film had its world premiere at the Panama Film Festival last April.
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[September 17, 2014, UPDATE] Bolivia has selected the film Olvidados by Mexican director Carlos Bolado as its Oscar candidate. Starring Damián Alcázar, Rafael Ferro, Carla Ortiz, and Tomás Fonzi, and based on real events about Operation Condor, the film chronicles the last days of José, a retired Bolivian colonel who participated in frequent episodes of repression and torture that happened during the military dictatorship. Bedridden to near death and looking haunted by memories and regrets, José confesses to his only child its true origin, a secret that has worried for years.
Bolivia submitted a film to the Oscars for the first time in 1995. The last time the South American country submitted a candidate was in 2009 when it sent Juan Carlos Valdivia's Zona sur / Southern District.
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[September 11, 2014, UPDATE] The Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences has chosen Sebastián del Amo's biopic Cantinflas as Mexico's contender for the Oscars in the foreign language category. Starring Spanish actor Óscar Jaenada as Cantinflas, the biographical drama tracing the beloved Mexican comedy icon's ascent from the regional stage to Hollywood as one of the key players in the star-studded Hollywood classic Around the World in 80 Days. The film was theatrically released in the United States few days ago where it has grossed over $5 million at the box office.
Even though Mexico has been nominated to the Academy Awards in the Foreign-Language Film competition eight times, it has never won in that category. The last time a Mexican production was nominated, was in 2010 with Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful.
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[September 11, 2014 UPDATE] Peru has selected the film El evangelio de la carne / The Gospel of the Flesh as its contender to the Oscars. The film directed by Eduardo Mendoza de Echave tells the story of three lives in search of redemption which intersect in the streets of Lima: undercover cop Gamarra’s desperate attempts to save his wife from a terminal illness gets him into trouble; bus driver Felix wants to be accepted into a religious sect after his involvement in a tragic traffic accident; and imperiled soccer club leader Narciso tries to secure his younger brother’s release from prison.
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[September 8, 2014 UPDATE] Alejandro Fernández Almendras' To Kill a Man / Matar a un hombre has been selected as Chile's candidate for the Oscars. Chile has submitted Oscar candidates since 1990, and in 2012 earned its first nomination with Pablo Larraín's No. Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the last edition of the Sundance Film Festival, To Kill a Man is the story of hardworking family man Jorge, who is just barely making ends meet. When he gets mugged by Kalule, a neighborhood delinquent, Jorge's son decides to confront Kalule, only to get himself shot in the process. Sentenced to a scant 2 years in prison for the offense, Kalule, released and now intent on revenge, goes on the warpath, terrorizing Jorge's family. With his wife, son and daughter at the mercy of a thug, Jorge has no choice but to take justice into his own hands, and live with the emotional and psychological consequences.
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[September 6, 2014 UPDATE] The Dominican Republic has selected the feature film Cristo Rey by Leticia Tonos as its candidate for the Oscars. The film, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, tells the story of star-crossed lovers -she is Dominican, he is Haitian, in an impoverished shantytown of Santo Domingo. Tonos' sophomore film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last year.
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Venezuela is the first Latin American country to select its 2014 candidate for the 87th edition of the Academy Awards in the Foreign-Language Film competition. The South American country has selected the epic fim The Liberator / Libertador by Alberto Arvelo as its candidate. Starring Édgar Ramírez as Simón Bolívar and with an original score by Gustavo Dudamel, the film portrays the lifelong quest of Venezuelan political leader to bring autonomy and democracy to the Americas. The film will have its U.S. theatrical release this October by the hand of the Cohen Media Group.
In total, 18 films were considered to represent Venezuela, including the favorite Bad Hair / Pelo malo by Mariana Rondón, winner of the Golden Shell for Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Since Venezuela sent its first candidate to the Oscars in 1978, it has failed to earn a nomination in the Foreign-Language Film category.
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