Latin American happenings in the Oscar submission realm

by Nathaniel R

In the heat of festival season we're also getting continued news about the Oscar race for Best International Feature. In terms of South America we'd already heard about submissions from the Dominican Republic (The Projectionist), Ecuador (The Longest Night which is sometimes referred to as Mala Noche), Panama (Everybody Changes), and Uruguay (The Moneychangers). There are three more already announced that will likely have higher profiles due to familiar actors. Colombia has Monos starring Julianne Nicholson, Cuba has A Translator starring Rodrigo Santoro and of course there's Brazil's Un Certain Regard-winning melodrama The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao which feels like a probable finalist / possible nominee. It's very moving and accessible and Fernanda Montenegro (of Central Station fame) adds a last boost of melancholy and nostalgia to it in terms of Brazilian cinema and Oscar affections. To add to that stack of films we've just learned that Bolivia will submit the gay drama Tu Me Manques (I Miss You) which is based on a hit stage play about a father visiting the boyfriend of his dead son in New York City. It recently won the screenwriting award at OutFest. The director Rodrigo Bellott was submitted once before for his artsy college film Sexual Dependency (2003). The film stars Oscar Martinez (Wild Tales) as the estranged father, Fernando Barbosa as his son's boyfriend, and features Rossy de Palma who is, of course, beloved from many Almodóvar pictures.

After the jump the finalists announced for both Chile and Mexico. Which films will they choose we wonder...

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Will Brazil finally return to Oscar's spotlight with "Invisible Life..."?

by Nathaniel R

Brazil has arguably had a rough go of it with the Oscars. Though they've been nominated four times they have yet to win, and at least a couple of their "misses" are pretty major. Lately they've also been beset by political problems at home which has extended into their arts. Note the shunning of the intimidatingly great Aquarius (2016) in its year due to the righteous politics of both the film and its creative team.

But perhaps this year's awards season will hold a happy ending to Brazil's 21 year Oscar drought? Their candidate this year is the Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes, The Invisible Life of Euricie Gusmao (based on the novel of the same name, pictured left) a 1950s period melodrama about two sisters. The film is directed by Karim Aïnouz (previously best known for Madame Sata and Futuro Beach) and co-stars the legendary Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station) who has some Oscar history herself...

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Nominations for the 61st Arieles Are Announced

by Jorge Molina

Award season is a misnomer. Movie awards are a year-long, worldwide affair. At the end of last month the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences (AMACC) announced its nominees for the 61st annual Ariel awards, celebrating the films of 2018.

As you undoubtedly would expect, Alfonso Cuarón’s multi-celebrated, Oscar-winning Roma garnered the most nominations, with 15. It was followed by Museo, by Alonso Ruizpalacios, and The Good Girls by Alejandra Márquez Abella (still awaiting US distribution), with 14 each.

You can see a full list of the nominees after the jump with a bit of trivia and commentary [UPDATED IN JULY: WE'VE ALSO NOTATED WHICH FILM WON EACH PRIZE AT THE CEREMONY. WINNERS ARE MARKED WITH A STAR]...

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Doc Corner: Feminist History of Revolution in ¡Las Sandinistas!

By Glenn Dunks

A feminist tribute to the female soldiers of Nicaragua’s underground rebellion, Jenny Murray’s debut feature ¡Las Sandinistas! is an appropriately-timed documentary about the capacity of women in times of social upheaval and democratic unrest. It is an often-thrilling account of a revolution that represents in part the keen importance of women creatives behind the camera as a way of hunting stories that have gone previously unexplored and unexamined in film and yet hold worth to contemporary audiences.

Murray, who also produced and edited ¡Las Sandinistas! after a pair of short films (she is also an actress), has struck upon really fascinating subjects and it’s both her luck and ours that many are still alive and able to tell their stories...

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Review: Birds of Passage

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Modernity is rarely a welcome concept for those rooted in tradition. What many see as progress is often decried as the destruction of long-held values and an attempt to push out members of the old guard who still adhere to customs they do not believe to be outdated. Every community must adapt to technological progress in some way or remain isolated from the rest of the world, a strategy that can’t last forever.

In Colombia's Birds of Passage, which made the nine-wide finalist list for foreign film but missed the nomination, the setting is the 1960s and the disruptive influence is the drug trade. Rapayet (José Acosta) becomes engaged to Zaida (Natalia Reyes), and, according to the customs of their indigenous Wayúu community, must present her family with a substantial dowry. Motivated by pride more than anything, Rapayet sees a business opportunity to provide Americans from the Peace Corps with marijuana...

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Berlinale 2019: Three queer selections, a doc from the Sudan, and one walkout

Hallo! Seán here reporting from the 2019 Berlinale. It's the first big European film festival of the year, where new work premieres, deals get made, parties go on (and on) and where cinephiles prove their love of film by standing around in the freezing cold. I'm doing my best "Berlinale business bear" I'm here in an offical capacity: getting a first look at the queer TEDDY titles (which we'll talk about after the jump) and the short films for festivals in London and Dublin, but aside from that I'm also here to enjoy the film festival experience i.e. standing in the wrong line and walking in completely cold to something truly bizarre and extraordinary.

The Berlinale has many distinct and diverse sections, each with their own different forms and appeal. As someone who (a year later) is only a year later beginning to figure this out, allow me to impart my knowledge on the sections before we jump into the queer selection...

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