18 Latin American countries, plus one European film shot in Nicaragua, are among the 93 record films competing in the Best International Feature at the 93rd edition of the Academy Awards. This year’s selection includes three documentary films—Babenco: Tell Me When I Die, The Mole Agent, and Once Upon a Time in Venezuela—and half of the Latin American Oscar hopefuls are directed by women.
In total, Latin America has won the Academy Award for best international film (formerly known as the best foreign language film) four times: the Argentine films The Official Story by Luis Puenzo in 1986, and The Secret in Their Eyes by Juan José Campanella in 2010; the Chilean film The Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio in 2018; and more recently, Mexico won the Oscar with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma in 2019.
The 2021 Academy Awards shortlist of 15 titles will be announced on February 9, followed by the final five nominations on March 15. The winners of this year’s Academy Awards will be announced on a telecast on Sunday, April 25.
Meet this year’s Latin American contenders:
ARGENTINA: THE SLEEPWALKERS
Argentina has selected Paula Hernández’s The Sleepwalkers / Los sonámbulos as its candidate in the International Feature competition. Starring Érica Rivas (Wild Tales), Luis Ziembrowski (The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime), and Daniel Hendler (The Moneychanger), the film follows Luisa, who is spending her New Year holiday with her husband and her 14-year-old daughter—a sleepwalker in the teenage awakening—at her mother-in-law’s country house with other family members. Nevertheless, what was hoped to be a leisurely summer vacation turns out to be an explosive occasion. A favorite at numerous international film festivals including Toronto, San Sebastian, and Chicago, The Sleepwalkers is a poignant and engaging drama about a family in crisis.
Argentina is the only Latin American country to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film twice, in 1985 for Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story and in 2009 for Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes. The country has been nominated seven times in the same category.
BOLIVIA: CHACO
Bolivia has selected Diego Mondaca’s debut feature Chaco as its contender for the 93rd edition of the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature competition. The film starring Fabián Arenillas, Raymundo Ramos, and Omar Calisaya, had its world premiere last January in the Bright Future Competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and has played in numerous film festivals since then.
Set in 1934, during the war between Bolivia and Paraguay. the film follows a small group of indigenous Bolivian soldiers, under the commandment of a retired German General, who wander in the Chaco desert looking for the Paraguayan enemy that they haven’t seen for months, and that they will never find. The monotonous grey landscape of the forest confuses them. The lack of water and food pressures them and all of their decisions are wrong, weakening the group’s spirit and generating a violent and quarrelsome environment between all of them, officials and soldiers, to the point that they try and get rid of one another. They are overcome by despair and constant uncertainty.
This is the 12th time that Bolivia selects an Oscar candidate, yet the South American country has yet to receive an Academy Award nomination.
BRAZIL: BABENCO: TELL ME WHEN I DIE
The documentary film Babenco: Tell Me When I Die / Babenco: Alguém Tem que Ouvir o Coração e Dizer Parou by Bárbara Paz, winner of the Venice Classics Award for Best Documentary in Cinema, has been selected by the South American country as its Academy Awards contender. “I have already lived my death and now all that is left is to make a film about it.” So said the Argentine-born Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco (Pixote, Kiss of the Spider Woman) to his wife Paz when he realized he did not have much time left. She accepted the challenge to fulfill the last wish of her late partner: to be the main protagonist in his own death. In this tender immersion into the life of one of the greatest filmmakers from South America, Babenco himself consciously bares his soul in intimate and painful situations. He expresses fears and anxieties, and also memories, reflections, and fantasies, in this face-off between his intellectual vigor and physical frailty, which were the hallmarks of his career. From the onset of cancer at the age of 38 until his death at 70, Babenco made of cinema his medicine and the nourishment that kept him alive. Babenco: Tell me when I Die is Paz’s debut feature film, but is also, in a way, Hector’s last work: a film about filming so never to die.
Brazil has been nominated four times for the Academy Awards, the last nomination was for Walter Salles’ Central Station in 1998, but has never won in the foreign language film category. Two of Babenco’s films had been selected as the Brazilian Oscar contenders: Pixote in 1980 (although it was disqualified as it was screened outside the Academy’s allowable dates) and Carandiru in 2003; and his 1985 American drama Kiss of the Spider Woman was nominated for four Academy Awards: for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor—the films’s protagonist William Hurt winning in this last category.
CHILE: THE MOLE AGENT
The documentary film The Mole Agent / El agente topo by Maite Alberdi is the South American nation’s candidate for the 93rd Academy Awards in the Best International Feature competition. The film follows 83-year-old Sergio, who, when sent as an undercover spy to a retirement home to investigate suspected neglect, learns a deeper lesson on human connection. Through the lens of the hidden camera in his decoy glasses, viewers watch as Sergio struggles to balance his assignment while becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents. The Mole Agent had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last January and has had a successful international run. Alberdi’s film aims to become the second Chilean Academy Award winner after Sebastián Lelio’s win for A Fantastic Woman in 2018.
COLOMBIA: FORGOTTEN WE’LL BE
Colombia has selected the film Forgotten We’ll Be / El olvido que seremos by Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque), as its contender. Selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, Forgotten We’ll Be is the film adaptation of Héctor Abad Faciolince’s masterpiece, one of the must-read books in contemporary Spanish-language literature and the true story of his father, Colombian human rights activist Héctor Abad Gómez. Starring Spanish-actor Javier Cámara (The Young Pope), Forgotten We’ll Be tells the story of a man torn between the love of his family and his political fight set in the violence-riddled Colombia of recent decades. Based on Hector Abad Faciolince's cult novel, the film portrays the life of his father, a prominent doctor and human rights activist in the polarized, violent Medellin of the 70s. A family man worried not only for his own children but those of the underprivileged classes as well, his home was imbued with vitality and creativity, the result of an education based on tolerance and love. Nothing could foretell that a terrible cancer would take the life of one of his beloved daughters. Driven by sadness and rage, Héctor devoted himself to the social and political causes of the time. But Medellin's intolerant society would harass him until he was finally silenced.
Colombia has received one nomination in the category for international film at the Oscars, for Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent in 2016.
COSTA RICA: LAND OF ASHES
Costa Rica has selected Land of Ashes / Ceniza negra, the debut feature by Sofía Quirós Ubeda to represent the country in the competition for best international feature film at the 2021 Oscars, becoming the ninth Costa Rican Oscar contender since the Central American nation first submitted a candidate in 2005. The film, which had its world premiere in the Critics’ Week selection at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, follows teenager Selva, who lives in a Caribbean coastal town. After the sudden disappearance of her only motherly figure, Selva is the only one left to take care of her grandfather, who doesn’t want to live anymore. Between mysterious shadows and wild games, she debates whether helping her grandfather achieve his desire, even though this might mean going through her last moments of childhood alone.
CUBA: LOOKING FOR CASAL
Cuba has submitted the period biopic Looking for Casal / Buscando a Casal by Jorge Luis Sánchez, as its Oscar contender. Starring Yasmany Guerrero, Yadier Fernández, Blanca Rosa Blanco, Armando Miguel, and Marlon López, the film is set in Havana at the end of the 19th century, and tells the story of the Cuban poet Julián del Casal, who was one of the most important forerunners of the Modernist movement in Latin America. The young poet (who died at age 29) is subjected to all kinds of pressure after criticizing a powerful man. He will only manage to survive thanks to his elegant fantasy and his lover. The film had its premiere at the Havana Film Festival in 2019.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A STATE OF MADNESS
For a third time—after Love Child in 2011 and Cristo Rey in 2014—a film directed by Leticia Tonos will represent the Dominican Republic at the Academy Awards. The Caribbean island has selected Tonos’ period drama A State of Madness / Mis 500 locos as the country’s Oscar hopeful. Set in 1953 during the cruel dictatorship of Leónidas Trujillo and based on the book by Dominican psychiatrist Antonio Zaglul, the stylish film tells the true story of Dr. Zaglul who was appointed as new director of the Nigüa Psychiatric Hospital after a group of mental patients escaped. Nevertheless, it’s difficult for him to tell if madness lives inside or outside the hospital’s walls.
ECUADOR: EMPTINESS
Ecuador is participating at this year’s Oscars with Emptiness /Vacío, the debut feature by Paul Venegas. The immigration drama that follows Lei and Wong, who clandestinely arrive to Ecuador from China. She has only one goal: New York. He longs to bring his son from China. The future of both is in the hands of Chang, a bipolar gangster who becomes obsessed with her and knows he owns everyone's abyss. Emptiness portrays the anguish of the immigrant, a journey of deep emotions immersed in male power relations, and where people struggle to save their dignity. Winner of the Best Ecuadorian Film Award at the Guayaquil Film Festival, the Ecuadorian-Uruguayan co-production has its international premiere in a few days at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, and it becomes the ninth Ecuadorian Oscar hopeful since the country first submitted a candidate in 2000.
GUATEMALA: LA LLORONA
Guatemala has announced that La Llorona, the third feature film by Jayro Bustamante has been selected as the Oscar candidate of the Central American country in the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film Award. La Llorona is a tale of horror and magical realism that reimagines the iconic Latin American fable. The film follows indignant retired general Enrique, as he finally faces trial for the genocidal massacre of thousands of Mayans decades ago. As a horde of angry protestors threatens to invade his opulent home, the women of the house—his wife, daughter, and granddaughter—weigh their responsibility to shield the erratic, senile Enrique against the devastating truths being publicly revealed and the increasing sense that a wrathful supernatural force is targeting them for his crimes. Bustamante’s political horror film had its world premiere at Venice Days, the independent competitive section of the 2019 Venice Film Festival, and played to critical acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.
This is the third time that Guatemala selects an Oscar candidate after Luis Argueta’s The Silence of Neto / El silencio de Neto in 1994, and more recently in 2015 with Bustamante’s debut feature Ixcanul.
HONDURAS: DAYS OF LIGHT
Honduras participates in the Oscar competition for the second time ever—after Hispano Durón’s Morazán in 2017—with the Central American omnibus film Days of Light / Días de luz directed by Enrique Pérez, Mauro Borges, Gloria Carrión, Julio López, Enrique Medrano, Sergio Ramirez. The premise of the film is that after a five-day solar storm, a mysterious blackout leaves Central America completely without power, depriving 47 million people of basic technology. During this time, characters from six Central American countries—Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador—will embark on different stories that lead them to confront their true selves and their pasts. They will face life in the most basic of terms after being completely disconnected from today's technologies. Fears, loves and friendships will erupt as they reunite with loved ones while a strangely colored sky creates an unseen tropical aura.
MEXICO: I”M NO LONGER HERE
The Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences selected Fernando Frías’ I’m No Longer Here / Ya no estoy aquí as this year’s Mexican Academy Awards. Winner of the Best Film Award at the Morelia Film Festival and released by Netflix, Frías’ electrifying second feature follows a street gang from Monterrey named “Los Terkos." Spending their days listening to slowed-down cumbia music, attending dance parties, and showing off their outfits, hairstyles, and gang alliances, the members call themselves Kolombianos for their mix of cholo culture with Colombian music. Ulises, their leader, tries to protect his friends from a quickly evolving drug-political war, but after a misunderstanding with a local cartel he’s forced to migrate to New York City. There he tries to assimilate, but when Ulises learns that his gang and the whole Kolombia culture is under threat, he questions his place in America and longs to return home.
Winner of ten Ariel Awards, including for Best Film and Best Director, I’m No Longer Here beat out Michel Franco’s New Order / Nuevo órden and Heidi Edwig’s I Carry You With Me / Te llevo conmigo, which were two other favorite contenders in the Mexican Oscar race. Mexico has nabbed nine Oscar nominations for Best International Feature, winning its first Academy Award in 2019 with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma.
PANAMA: OPERATION JUST CAUSE
Panama choose the historical drama Operation Just Cause / Causa justa by Luis Franco Brantley and Luis Pacheco as its contender. Based on real events and set in 1989 during the U.S. invasion of Panama, the debut film by Brantley and Pacheco tells the story of a military officer, a fisherman, an American businessman, a prostitute and a young man trying to keep his friends from joining the fighting, that experience the invasion—named Operation Just Cause—in a central district in Panama City. Starring Arian Abadi, Anthony Anel, Patricia de León, and Aaron Zebede, the film had its commercial release a year ago in the Central American country. Co-director Pacheco has produced numerous films including the 2018 documentary feature Panama, and the 2014 film Escobar: Paradise Lost.
PARAGUAY: KILLING THE DEAD
Hugo Giménez’s thriller Killing the Dead / Matar a un muerto is Paraguay’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, marking the fourth time that this South American nation selects an Oscar candidate. Set in 1978, during Stroessner´s dictatorship in Paraguay, the film follows Pastor and Dionisio who make living by burying dead bodies in the woods, illicitly. At the same time, the Soccer World Cup is being held in Argentina and one morning, the gravediggers find a man, Mario, amidst the bodies, still breathing. The two men are aware that they must end Mario´s life, but they’ve never killed anyone. Starring Ever Enciso, Aníbal Ortiz, Silvio Rodas, Jorge Román with dialogues in Spanish and Guarani, Killing the Dead was nominated for a Silver Condor Award in Argentina for Best Co-production Film.
PERU: SONG WITHOUT A NAME
Peru has selected Melina León’s debut feature Song Without a Name / Canción sin nombre as its Oscar candidate. The film, which had its world premiere at the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival is looking to become the second Peruvian Academy Award nominee after Claudia Llosa’s nabbed a nomination in 2009 for her film The Milk of Sorrow. Based on harrowing true events, Song Without a Name tells the story of Georgina, an indigenous Andean woman whose newborn baby is whisked away moments after its birth in a downtown Lima clinic—and never returned. Stonewalled by a byzantine and indifferent legal system, Georgina approaches journalist Pedro Campas, who uncovers a web of fake clinics and abductions, suggesting corruption rotting deep within Peruvian society.
Set in 1988 in a Peru wracked by political violence and turmoil, Melina León’s heart-wrenching first feature renders Georgina's story in gorgeous, shadowy black-and-white cinematography, "styled like the most beautiful of bad dreams" (Variety). Song Without a Name is a "Kafkaesque thriller" (The Hollywood Reporter) that depicts real-life, stranger-than-fiction tragedies with poetic beauty.
SURINAME: WIREN
Suriname participates in the Oscar for the first time ever with the drama Wiren, about a 7-year-old deaf boy who meets American doctor Dr. Richard Young and a world of opportunities opens up for the small boy born in the rural district. Energized and inspired the boy leaves his small hometown and moves to the capital city of Paramaribo. There he will be confronted with the harsh reality of city life, which forces him to overcome many obstacles. But his biggest challenge is still ahead, how to be a full participant in society as a deaf boy. He will have to make big sacrifices for his goal to fight for his rights regardless of his disability.
URUGUAY: ALELÍ
Uruguay has announced that the comedy Alelí, the second feature film by director Leticia Jorge Romero (So Much Water), has been selected as the country’s Academy Awards contender in the Best International Feature competition. Starring Néstor Guzzini, Mirella Pascual, Cristina Morán, and Romina Peluffo, the film has played at numerous international film festivals including Miami, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro. Alelí follows three siblings, whose long-simmering resentments are brought to a full boil after the death of patriarch Alfredo sends his heirs into a downward spiral and the pending sale of their beach house, a repository of childhood memories. Alternating between moments of laugh-out-loud absurdity and stirring beauty, Alelí is a knowing black comedy about a dysfunctional family that seems willing to set everything on fire.
VENEZUELA: ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENEZUELA
The documentary film Once Upon a Time in Venezuela / Érase una vez en Venezuela, the debut feature by Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, is Venezuela’s candidate to the Oscars. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last January and has been screening in numerous international film festivals since then. The film is set at the small floating village of Congo Mirador on the edge of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. Now sinking into sediment, this once-prosperous fishing community is unraveling after years of criminal pollution and government neglect. Focusing on two fierce, independent women who epitomize opposing sides of this vulnerable community, Rodríguez Ríos’s film is a stunning microcosm of a global battle to safeguard cultural heritage and retain political relevancy.
LUXEMBOURG: RIVER TALES
Even though Nicaragua didn’t submit an Oscar candidate—it has only entered the competition three times, the last one in 2020—the Central American country will be represented by the Luxembourg candidate, the documentary film River Tales / Cuento del río by Julie Schroell. The film follows actor and teacher Yemn, who creates a play with the local kids to reflect on their history, their identity and the country‘s future at the same time that a Chinese businessman wants to take control of the interoceanic route in Nicaragua.
