Friday, September 27, 2013

Nuestro Cine: Growing Up is Hard to Do

Next week we’ll look at several Latin American movies selected by their respective countries for the upcoming Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Spain has won the award on four occasions with the most recent recipient being 2004’s “The Sea Inside” (“Mar adentro”).  This year’s entry is "15 Anos y un día" (15 Years and a Day), a drama focusing on a teenager son who’s expelled from school and forced to live with his grandfather:

The movie stars renowned Spanish actress Maribel Verdu and was directed by Gracia Querejeta whose father, film producer Elias Querejeta, died in June.


This Tuesday is the deadline for submissions for the top foreign language film at the Oscars.  In January, a nine-film shortlist will be chosen followed by the five finalists.

Ten Latin American films since 1998 have been nominated as finalists to the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  The only winner of the esteemed prize from the region in the past fifteen years was 2009 Argentine film “The Secret in Their Eyes” (“El secreto de sus ojos”).

Nuestro Cine is our occasional look at the film scene in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Video Source– YouTube via user latidospain
 

Online Sources – ABC News; The Latin Americanist

3 comments:

Tamara said...

Actually, there were two (and only) wins from a Latin American country, and both were from Argentina. The one omitted was "La historia oficial" (The Official Story) directed by Luis Puenzo for the 1986 win.

Erwin C. said...

You're absolutely correct ("La Historia Oficial" is a brilliant film). But I originally wrote that "El Secreto..." was the only Latin American film to win since 1998.

I rewrote the final paragraph for the sake of clarification.

Thanks Tamara for your comment!

Tamara Falicov said...

My pleasure, Erwin C! I am very excited that you are featuring Latin American cinema, the focus of my research. It is much appreciated!!