Mexico selected I’m No Longer Here, the Spanish film, as its official entry for Oscars on Monday. Deadline reported that the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences has chosen the Fernando Frais de la Parra directorial venture for this year’s International Feature Film race at the Oscars.
The film is written and directed by de la Parra and features Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino and Angelina Chen in the lead roles.
The story revolves around a young local gang leader (played by Trevino) who relocates to Queens, in New York, after an altercation with a local drug cartel. What follows is a battle for survival for a homeless and penniless youngster.
Prior to its Oscar run, the film made a mark at some international film festivals, including the Morelia International Film Festival 2019 (where it won the Audience Award and the Best Feature Film Award), and the Cairo International Film Festival 2019 (where Trevino bagged the Best Actor Award and the film took home the Golden Pyramid Best Film Award).
The film also received 10 Ariel Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is Mexico’s official submission for Spain’s Goya Awards. It is produced by Frias along with Alberto Muffelmann, Gerry Kim, and Gerardo Gatica.
It premiered at the 2019 Morelia International Film Festival and released on Netflix on May 27, as the OTT giant had bought the rights of the film back in 2018.
In April, the Academy Awards had announced that films which were intended to have a theatrical release but were released on streaming platforms were also eligible for entry.
Mexico has seen a total of nine nominations for the Oscars’ International Feature Race. The 2018 film Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, was the last Mexican film to have won an Oscar.
Indonesia announced on November 11 that the 2019 horror film Impetigore (Perempuan Tanah Jahanam) will be the South-Asian country’s official entry for Oscars. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the only horror film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Other horror films that have earned a nomination include, The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Sixth Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010), and Get Out (2017).
Helmed and penned by Joko Anwar, the film was chosen out of 59 Indonesian films by the Oscar Submission Selection Committee in Indonesia led by celebrated filmmaker Garin Nugroho.
It won the Méliès International Festivals Federation Award for Best Asian Film at the 2020 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea, and dominated the nominations at the 2020 Indonesian Film Festival by receiving a total of 17 nominations.
While India is yet to announce its Oscar entry, three Indian filmmakers have been invited to the Oscars 2021 jury- Nishtha Jain, Shirley Abraham, and Amit Madhesiya.
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Some other entries include Japan’s True Mothers, Germany’s And Tomorrow the Entire World, Czech Republic’s Charlatan, and South Korea’s The Man Standing Next. Netflix has pitched four films for the Oscar race- Mank, The Trial of Chicago 7, Da 5 Bloods, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.