A look at submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film: Costa Rica
As the time goes on and we get ever closer to time that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announce the nominees for the Oscar of Best Foreign Language Film. It is time to take a look at all the films that are competing for a spot at this prestigious award.
Costa Rican submission for the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film is “Medea” 2017 drama film directed by Alexandra Latishev Salazar who studied at the Véritas University Film and TV School in Costa Rica. Her short film “Irene” participated in different festivals, including Kinoforum, Clermont-Ferrand, Toulouse, Alucine, Flanders Latino Film Festival, Havana Festival, Ícaro Festival and the FICCR. She has worked on films by Paz Fábrega, María T. Larrain, Neto Villalobos and Alice de Andrade. Medea is her feature directorial debut.
The story is about María José . Her life moves back and forth between the monotony of class at the university, her eternally distant parents, and a couple of alternative spaces where she can explore her own and others' limits. One day, she meets Javier, a boy she really likes and tries to have a relationship with, but her behavior starts changing radically. In fact, she's a few months into her pregnancy and no one knows.
The film was nominated for the Best Film award at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema and was the winner of Best Actress at Lima Latin American Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Actress at the Premios Fénix and at San Sebastián International Film Festival it was nominated for Horizons Award. While at The Platino Awards for Iberoamerican Cinema it was nominated for Best Actress and Best Art Director award and last but not least it was nominated for the best film award at the Warsaw International Film Festival.
The film revcieved positive reviews from local critics with Juan Pablo Russo writing “Medea manages the self-destruction of the character in a just tone. Without low blows or the need to fall into heartbreaking scenes, it does so with an overwhelming narrative and aesthetic security.” And William Venegas saying “The aesthetic aspects of Medea are not so important in the face of the singularity of the dilemma, so the film develops rather ceremoniously with camera in hand”
This film has been successful on the international stage and it has a slight chance of winning a nomination at the Oscar. With so many countries vying to win this admirable award, it is hard to keep up on the films that were submitted by each country. On the next instalments of this report we will take a look at the other submissions for this award.
