Ecuador has become the second Latin American country to announce its Oscar candidate, after Uruguay, selecting Javier Andrade’s drama Lo Invisible as its submission for Best International Feature Film for the 95th Academy Awards. The selection was made by the 50 members of the Academy of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Arts of Ecuador, which also announced the film as their contender for Spain’s Goya Awards and Colombia’s Macondo Awards.
The second film by Andrade stars Anahí Hoeneisen, Gerson Guerra, and Juan Lorenzo Barragán and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Lo Invisible tells the story of Luisa, 45, who returns from a psychiatric clinic after a bout with severe postpartum depression. She enters a new confinement in her dazzling home, surrounded by family members and a brigade of domestic workers who expect her struggles to remain invisible. Unable to continue playing the role of the perfect housewife, Luisa's only escape is to waltz elegantly into madness.
Lo Invisible becomes the eleventh Ecuadorean Oscar candidate since the South American country first submitted a contender in 2000. Andrade’s debut feature Porcelain Horse / Mejor no hablar de ciertas cosas was Ecuador’s Academy Award submission in 2013.
