'Romería' by Carla Simón, shortlisted for the Oscars

BarcelonaThree Catalan productions have been shortlisted by the Spanish Film Academy to represent Spain in the race for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film: Pilgrimage of Carla Simón, Sirado ofOliver Laxe and Deaf Eva Libertad. The reading of the nominated films was conducted by two Spanish academics who are also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: actress Emma Suárez and actor Juan Diego Botto. They were accompanied by the president of the Spanish Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, and notary Eva Fernández Medina. Spain's representative at the last edition of the Oscars. was Second prize, which ultimately failed to achieve a nomination from the Hollywood Academy.

This will be the third time that Carla Simón has opted to represent Spain at the Oscars: she already did so with her first two films, Summer 1993 and Alcarràs, which ended up being chosen by the Spanish Academy and entered the Oscar race, but ultimately failed to achieve a nomination. Pilgrimage, which follows a teenager's trip to Galicia to meet her father's family, opens in theaters this Friday, following its official presentation in the official competition at the last Cannes Film Festival. In her latest film, Simón explores through fiction the memory of her biological parents, who died of AIDS when she was a child.

It also premiered at Cannes Sirado, a road movie across the Sahara in which Sergi López is a father who searches for radish in radish his missing daughter. Directed by Galician Oliver Laxe, Sirado won the Cannes Jury Prize, a historic milestone for Catalan cinema, which had not won any awards in the official section of Cannes since the Palme d'Or in Viridiana, by Luis Buñuel. The other Catalan production nominated to represent Spain at the Oscars is Deaf, debut film by director Eva Libertad, starring Miriam Garlo, the director's sister and the first deaf actress to star in a film in the State. Deaf It portrays the transformation of a couple's love when they decide to have a child, and the impact that the fact that she is deaf and he (Álvaro Cervantes) is hearing has. Deaf It was presented at the Berlinale and triumphed at the Malaga Festival, where it took home the awards for best film, actress, and actor.

Following the announcement of the shortlisted films, the Spanish Film Academy opens a new round of voting among its members. The result, and therefore Spain's final representative in the Oscar race, will be announced on September 17. The last Spanish film nominated for the Oscar for best international film was The Snow Society, by JA Bayona.