"Dance of the 41" and "Identifying Features" are up for Ariel Awards
Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 3:58PM
NATHANIEL R in Ariel Awards, Dance of the 41, I Carry You With Me, Identifying Features, Los Lobos, Mabel Cadena, New Order, Tragic Jungle

by Nathaniel R

"Identifying Features" is available to rent on several services

The nominations for the 63rd annual Ariel Awards (Mexico's Oscars essentially) have been announced. Identifying Features, a drama about a mother travelling across Mexico in search of answers about her son who vanished trying to cross the border made the biggest noise with 16 nominations. In happy news ALL of the Best Picture nominated films are readily available online to US audiences. We've seen more of the Ariel contenders than usual thanks to their festival appearances and current availability (links in the nomination list if we've written about them). Identifying Features is up against two films we loved, Dance of the 41 and Los Lobos along with Tragic Jungle and a documentary called The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo... 

[UPDATE THIS POST NOW REFLECTS THE WINNERS OF THESE PRIZES AS WELL]

We don't yet know which film Mexico will submit this year for the Oscars but it's a strange year as the window is short (given the extended window for the last ceremony's submission) so many of these Ariel nominees won't be eligible or are right on the line of "will they be?"* Still there are a lot of strange extended years involved. Some of the films nominated this year at the Ariels have 2018 or 2019 dates on IMDb so they've been waiting a long time for their moment. Crazy right! 

FEATURE 

"Dance of the 41" is a fascinating (and sexy) historical drama about Mexico's first gay scandal. Streaming on Netflix.

Three Deaths, Los Lobos, and Dance of the 41 are definitely out of the Oscar submission running (sigh) having premiered in Mexico (and sometimes in the US) in 2020 before the cut-off date for last year's submission. Things are less clear with Identifying Features and Tragic Jungle. They both had festival showings in 2020 but we're not exactly sure about their proper Mexican releases in terms of timing. [UPDATE: Mexico chose Prayers for the Stolen to submit to Oscar which was not eligible for these Ariel Awards since it premiered after the nominations... so we assume it will be in the running at next year's Ariels]

ACTOR 

 

This category randomly has six nominees (all the other categories have 5). It's nice to see I Carry You With Me recognized in mutiple acting categories but  it's a pity they didn't recognize that film more broadly since it's also quite an achievement in terms of craft. It really had a confusing choppy roll out in the world which is too bad because it's brilliant. We hope that someday it finds the big appreciate audience it deserves. 

 

ACTRESS

Mabel Cadena, so unsettling (how does she elicit sympathy and hatred simultaneously?) in "Dance of the 41" is rumored to be joining the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

 

You already know we're fans of Mabel Cadena given our "halfway mark" acting lists back in early July but we have no idea who will win this.

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cici Lau plays a kindly neighbor in "Los Lobos"

 

The two performances we've seen from this list are both worthy nominees and bring wonderful variations of texture to their often glum movies.

 

SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

 

DIRECTOR

"Tragic Jungle"

 

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

 

 

EDITING

"New Order"

 

 

SPECIAL EFFECTS 

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

 

Wouldn't it be interesting if Oscar differentiated between special effects (often referred to as practical effects) and visual effects (which are almost all computer-generated now). The nominee lists could theoretically look quite different but maybe they wouldn't because look at the crossover here. It would probably end up like the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories where the branch rarely made enough of a distinction to earn two separate categories.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

 

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

 

 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

 

 

ANIMATED FEATURE

Will we see "A Costume for Nicolas" submitted to Animated Feature at the Oscars?

 

A Costume for Nicolas, about a boy with Downs Syndrome, is the only one of the animated features with a nomination elsewhere (Adapted Screenplay)

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"Three Deaths..." is now streaming on Netflix

 

Given it's enormous nomination haul across the regular categories you can probably safely predict that Three Deaths will win this one with ease.

MAKEUP

 

 

ORIGINAL SCORE

 

 

FIRST FILM

 

 

IBEROAMERICAN FEATURE

"The Mole Agent"

 

We find it fun and honest that Mexico's Oscars don't have a foreign-film category so much as a "other Spanish language countries" style category. Here we have a list that's 80% Oscar submissions from last season. The odd film out is Spain's The Good Girls since Spain chose Endless Trench to represent them. 

 

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Los Lobos features two great child actors and both were nominated.

 

 

SOUND

COSTUME DESIGN

the lovers risk a late night stroll in "Dance of the 41"

 

 

ANIMATED SHORT -WE HAVE NOT LEARNED WHO WON HERE

DOCUMENTARY SHORT -HEARD CONFLICTING THINGS ABOUT WHO WON HERE

LIVE ACTION SHORT 

 

 

GOLDEN ARIEL

* About eligibility... there are a lot of strange extended years involved. Some of the films nominated this year at the Ariels have 2018 or 2019 dates on IMDb so they've been waiting a long time for their moment. Distribution problems, pandemics, and different country's timetables have wreaked havoc!

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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