Review: Mexico's Oscar Submission "Tótem" Is Finally In Theaters - See It As Soon as Possible

by Nick Taylor

You may have noticed the Oscar nominations were announced last week. I’m not super enthused about this year’s lineups, which has some predictable excellence without giving me any surprises to be psyched about. I’ve spent this week catching up on the International Film category, and for the second year in a row, I’m mostly underwhelmed by Oscar’s choices. But rather than solely ragging on the Academy’s choices, I’m here for celebration and advocacy. Tótem, the second film by writer/director Lila Avilés and Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted submission, has been slowly rolling out in the US and other countries for the past week, and thank God for that. It’s one of the very best films of 2023 and deserves as big of an audience as it can get. Go watch it...

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Best International Film: Argentina's "The Delinquents" and Mexico's "Tótem"

by Cláudio Alves

In its long history, the Academy has awarded the Best International Film Oscar to a Latin-American country four times. The first two were from Argentina, 1985's The Official Story and 2009's The Secret in Their Eyes, followed by Chile with 2017's A Fantastic Woman, and Mexico with 2019's Roma. Looking at those dates, it's fair to say AMPAS has become more open to Latin cinema in the 21st century, even though Europe remains the category's continental champion. Hope remains eternal that voters will broaden their horizons. 

I've already reviewed Chile's submission, The Settlers, when at TIFF. So, it's time to consider the films of the other two Latin victors of yesteryear. There's Argentina's newly released The Delinquents, and Mexico's Berlinale prize-winner Tótem…

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TIFF '23: Getting into the Christmas Spirit with ‘El Sabor de la Navidad’

By Abe Friedtanzer

It always feels a little strange to watch a Christmas movie long before the holiday season, but that just means getting into that wintry mindset ahead of time! El Sabor de la Navidad, a Spanish-language comedy from Mexico, is notable because it’s produced by Salma Hayek Pinault and stars Mariana Treviño, who is the best reason to watch last year’s A Man Called Otto. It’s a lighthearted portrait of an extended family and others connected to them trying to get through a holiday that brings far too many conflicting personalities together…

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International Oscar Race - Australia's Choice. Plus Mexican and Swedish submission finalists

by Nathaniel R

"Shayda" will be Australia's Oscar submission

We've already shared some news in our favourite non-acting Oscar category. The most exciting thing at the moment is the Danish finalists which include a film called either Promised Land or Bastard (depending on where its playing). Elisa tells us that its going to be a major contender and could even bag Mads Mikkelsen the Best Actor win in Venice. Other recent Oscar updates for this category involved submissions from Estonia, South Korea and Uruguay and a finalist list from Netherlands, and news from Switzerland, Chile, and Tajikstan. We now have 13 submissions. The charts have been updated. The latest exciting news is the finalist lists from two important countries who historically perform well in this category, Mexico and Sweden... 

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International Oscars: Mexico's finalists and more submission titles

by Nathaniel R

THE HOLE IN THE FENCE

Mexico has chosen their Oscar submission finalist list. We'd do a whole huge post on it but we suspect by the time we did they'd have named their winner and despite divisive reviews thus far we suspect they won't be able to resist sending Iñarritu again. As it stands now they're looking at three films we've already reviewed here at TFE: Alejandro G Iñarritu's Bardo (False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), Lorenz Vigas' very dark father/son drama The Box, and Joaquin del Paso's allegorical summer camp drama The Hole in the Fence. The other two they're looking at are the sexual drama Nudo Mixteco by Angeles Cruz and the thriller Presencias by Luis Mandoki. Among those filmmakers Inarritu (Biutiful, Amores Perros) and Mandoki (Innocent Voices) have represented Mexico before while Vigas's debut film, the gay drama From Afar, was sent to represent Venezuela in its year.

But that's not all. We now know which films Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Turkey,and Uganda  are submitting. Details after the jump...  

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