Yesterday morning, the nominees for the 90th annual Academy Awards were announced, including this Chilean film

As has been costummary for decades, the Academy has announced the list of those films and people who will dispute an Oscar this coming March 4th. The following films are nominated for category for Best Foreign Language Film: the Chilean “A Fantastic Woman”, the Lebanese “The Insult”, the Russian “Loveless”, Hungarian “On Body and Soul”, and the Swedish “The  Square”.

The Latin American representative

This year, the only Latin American and Hispanic film nominated is “A Fantastic Women”, titled in Spanish “Una mujer fantástica”. The film was written and directed by Sebastián Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, and directed Sebastián Lelio. It is starred by Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, and Luis Gnecco.

In the Synopsis for Rotten Tomatoes, the film is described as: “Marina and Orlando are in love and planning for the future. Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Orlando is 20 years older than her, and owns a printing company. After celebrating Marina’s birthday one evening, Orlando falls seriously ill. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando’s family don’t trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando’s ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. And to make matters worse, Orlando’s son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman”.

This movie portrays a character who represents a community that has traditionally been discriminated and not accepted in conservative societies, such as the Chilean, which is part of what makes the film so groundbreaking, critics have said. We are probably biased, but the Latin American Post is betting on “A Fantastic Woman” to win in this category.

Other films nominated you should watch before the award show

• “The Shape of Water”. This film, directed by Mexican Guillermo del Toro, was the film that lead the nominations, with 13 in total. It is up for the most coveted award, including Best Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and the award for best Director.

• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, of Martin McDonagh. The film received 9 nominations, and is disputing del Toro’s film for Best Picture.  

• “Dunkirk”, by Christopher Nolan. The director known for action and adventure dramas like “The Dark Knight” and “Inception” has been nominated for his first ever Oscar with this warm film. The film received a total of 8 nominations, including Best Picture, and features a cast of young and up and coming actors, such as former One Direction member Harry Styles.

Latin American Post | Laura Rocha Rueda