The dystopian sci-fi drama Aire, Just Breathe, the fifth feature film by director Leticia Tonos, has been selected as the Dominican Republic’s entry for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. Starring Sophie Gaëlle, Paz Vega, and Jalsen Santana, the film follows a biologist’s quest to save what’s left of humanity by using artificial intelligence to inseminate herself.
Winner of The Fantastic Pavilion Award at Cannes, and selected for both the Big Screen competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), Aire, Just Breathe is set in the year 2147. In this dystopian future, men have been rendered sterile by a virus, pushing humanity to the brink of extinction. Tania, a biologist, seeks to inseminate herself with the help of VIDA, an AI system. Her mission takes a dramatic turn when Azarias, one of the last surviving men and a traveler with a dark past, unexpectedly arrives.
This is the fourth time Leticia Tonos has secured the Dominican Republic’s Oscar submission, following Love Child (2011), Cristo Rey (2014), and A State of Madness (2024). The Caribbean island nation has yet to earn its first Oscar nomination for Best International Feature.
