The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced yesterday morning the nominations for its 97th Academy Awards, which includes some Latin American and U.S. Latinx talent. The winners of this year’s Oscars will be announced during the televised ceremony on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Walter Salles’ Brazilian film I’m Still Here / Ainda Estou Aqui made history with three Oscar nominations. It is only the second Latin American film to earn a Best Picture nomination—following Alfonso Cuarón's Roma in 2019—and the first Portuguese-language film to do so.
The film's star, Fernanda Torres, received a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role, while the film also secured a spot in the Best International Feature category. This marks Brazil's fifth nomination in the category. Notably, Torres follows in the footsteps of her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated for Best Actress in 1999 for Salles’ Central Station.
Afro-Latino actor Colman Domingo, of Belizean and Guatemalan descent, earned his second consecutive Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in Sing Sing. This follows last year’s nomination for portraying Bayard Rustin in Rustin. In Sing Sing, Domingo plays Divine G, a man wrongfully imprisoned who finds purpose through acting in a prison theater group.
In the Best Supporting Actress category, two Latina performers will compete: Dominican-American Zoë Saldaña for her role in Emilia Pérez and Monica Barbaro, of Mexican descent, for her performance as Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
Saldaña, who recently won the Golden Globe for her performance, stars as Rita in Emilia Pérez, a high-powered lawyer in Mexico City tasked with helping a cartel leader fake their death and undergo gender-affirming procedures. The Spanish-language, French-produced film received 13 nominations, setting a record as the most-nominated non-English-language film in Oscar history.
Barbaro portrays legendary Mexican-American folk singer Joan Baez, whose complex relationship with Bob Dylan is depicted in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown.
Mexican-American musician and producer Adrian Quesada earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Song with “Like A Bird” from Sing Sing. Born in Laredo, Texas, Quesada is an eight-time Grammy nominee and a former member of Grupo Fantasma, which won the Grammy for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. He is currently best known for his work with the psychedelic soul band Black Pumas.
Argentine visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman received his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for his work on the musical fantasy film Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu. In the same category, Alien: Romulus, directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez, also nabbed a nomination.
Additionally, American cinematographer Ed Lachman garnered a nomination for Best Cinematography for Pablo Larraín's Maria. This is Lachman’s second collaboration with Larraín to receive Oscar recognition, following El Conde last year.
