Record Six Latinos, Four Spanish-Language Films, Will Compete for Oscars
Antonio Mejías-Rentas     [Photo]

When the Academy Awards are announced at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre Feb. 27, an unprecedented six Latino filmakers will be involved in the competition.

A record four Spanish-language films earned six Academy Award nominations Jan. 25, including a best actress nod for a debuting Colombian thespian.

Catalina Sandino Moreno became the third Latin American woman to compete for a best actress Oscar with her nomination for the festival hit María llena eres de gracia.

Two other Spanish-language films compete in two categories each.
Diarios de motocicleta earned Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera a nod for adapted screenplay, and its thematic Al otro lado del río gave a best song candidacy to Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler.

As expected, Spain's official entry Mar adentro is up for best foreign language film. It also took a makeup nod, with nominations going to artists Jo Allen and Manolo García.

The fourth Spanish-language nominee is A las 7:35 a.m. de la mañana, a film from Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo that competes for best live-action short.

The number of nominations ties the record set in 2003, when three Spanish-language films and one English-language Latino-themed movie took six nods.

Including Mar adentro director Alejandro Amenábar, there are six individual Latinos among nominees for the 77th annual Academy Awards — the highest number ever.

Two Latino nominees who live in the United States were understandably excited by the nominations.

In New York, Sandino Moreno said she was speaking on the phone with her mother in Colombia when she saw her picture and heard her name called out during the televised announcement.

"I jumped with joy," she told the city's El diario/LA PRENSA. "I can't explain how I felt. It was a mixture of emotions."

The Colombia-born actress made her debut in New York filmmaker Joshua Marston's María, a breakout hit at last year's Sundance Film Festival that has triumphed at several events since. Sandino Moreno won the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival last year. It competes in a similar category this year at the Independent Spirit Awards, where María is a top contender.

María was submitted last year as Colombia's candidate for best foreign language film but rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because most of its filmmakers were not from that country.

No Latina has ever won the best actress nod. The only previous competitors in the category were Brazil's Fernanda Montenegro for Central do Brasil (1998) and Mexico's Salma Hayek for Frida (2003). Sandino Moreno is the first actress nominated for a performance in Spanish.

Diarios is the first script by José Rivera to become a feature film. The Los Angeles resident told the city’s daily La Opinión he was awakened before dawn by a friend when his nomination was announced.

Rivera based his script on the writings of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Alberto Granado, two Argentineans who became heroes of the Cuban Revolution. The film tells of their youthful journeys through several South American countries.

"To me, it means a great deal that more people may see the movie now, and that perhaps there will be more understanding of who Ernesto Guevara was," said Rivera.

The four other Latino nominees live and work in Spain, although two of them were born in South America.

Drexler, a native of Montevideo, has lived in Madrid since 1992. He told reporters he would attend next month's Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles only if he were allowed to perform Al otro lado del río live. It is the first Spanish-language song to be nominated.

Chile-born Amenábar has lived in Spain most of his life. While celebrating the two nominations for Mar adentro, he said he was disappointed that the film's star, Javier Bardem, was not among nominees.

Nacho Vigalondo, who qualified for the Oscar nomination when A las 7:35 a.m. took the top award at a major Spanish film festival last year, is a well-known commercial actor and TV scriptwriter.

Manolo García, who shares the nomination for the extreme transformation Bardem underwent to become the paraplegic Ramón Sampedro in Mar adentro, is the fourth Latino to compete for a makeup Oscar. Previous nominees include Ken Díaz and Mark Sánchez for My Family (1995) and Beatrice del Alba, one of two nominees in 2003 for Frida.

(Antonio Mejías Rentas is entertainment editor with La Opinión in Los Angeles, the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper. He may be contacted by e-mail at lataino@aol.com.)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
02/06/05
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