Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning (Jan. 24), and a handful of Latin American artists made the list.
Cuban actress Ana de Armas was nominated for her harrowing portrayal of American film icon Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Meanwhile, Mexican film maestro Guillermo del Toro received a nod for best animated feature for his acclaimed stop-motion take on the children’s classic Pinocchio.
His amigo and countryman Alfonso Cuarón was also nominated — in the best short film category — as a producer of Le Pupille. And an Argentine film is up for the best international feature award: Argentina, 1985, directed by Santiago Mitre.
The 95th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, and airs live on ABC.
Learn more about the Latin American nominees below (in alphabetical order), and where to watch their films:
ALFONSO CUARÓN
Nomination: Best live-action short film for Le Pupille (The Pupils)
Produced by Cuarón and written and directed by Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher (with whom Cuarón shares the nomination), Le Pupille is a 37-minute drama about a group of rebellious girls at a Catholic boarding school before Christmas in the 1940s, during the war in Italy. It is available on Disney+.
Competes against: An Irish Goodbye, Ivalu, Night Ride and The Red Suitcase.
Cuarón at the Oscars: Cuarón has won four Academy Awards, for best directing and editing in 2014 for Gravity, and for best directing and cinematography in 2019 for Roma. He has received a total of 11 nominations, the first one in 2003 for the original screenplay of Y Tu Mamá También, which he wrote with his brother, Carlos Cuarón.
ANA DE ARMAS
Nomination: Best actress, for Blonde
de Armas convincingly portrays American icon Marilyn Monroe. In Blonde, the Cuban actress — who had already won acclaim for her supporting roles in the blockbusters Knives Out and No Time to Die — offers her most gutsy and heartbreaking performance to date as she transforms into Norma Jean Baker. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, the Netflix film addresses the personal, romantic and professional life of the person and artist. The Motion Picture Association of America gave it an NC-17 rating for “some sexual content.”
Competes against: Cate Blanchett (Tár), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once.)
De Armas at the Oscars: This is the first nomination for the Cuban actress.
ARGENTINA, 1985
Nomination: Best international feature film (formerly known as best foreign language film)
Directed by Santiago Mitre, Argentina, 1985 deals with a historical event that occurred in the South American country that year: the Trial of the Juntas, in which a team of lawyers faced the military dictatorship against all odds. Actors Ricardo Darín and Peter Lanzani play Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, the legal duo at the center of this event that went down in history as one of the pillars in the transition to democracy in Argentina. Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Competes against: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germant), Close (Belgium), EO (Poland), and The Quiet Girl (Ireland).
Argentina at the Oscars: Argentina, 1985 is the eighth movie from the South American country that competes in this category. Two Argentine films have won the award so far: Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story in 1985, and Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes in 2009.
GUILLERMO DEL TORO
Nomination: Best animated feature film, for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Mexican filmmaker del Toro puts his stamp on the children’s classic about a wooden doll that comes to life in the face of a man’s deep desire to be a father. Beautifully animated in stop-motion, Del Toro’s Pinocchio is much darker than the Disney version, with a grieving father, a character named Mussolini, bombings, and a more visually interesting wooden boy. The cast includes A-listers such as Cate Blanchett, Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Ron Perlman. Directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson, it can be streamed on Netflix.
Competes against: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Sea Beast, Turning Red.
Del Toro at the Oscars: Winner of two Academy Awards — for best film and direction for The Shape of Water in 2018 — del Toro has been nominated for six Oscars in total. In 2007, he competed for best original script for Pan’s Labyrinth, which also represented Mexico in the international feature film category. Last year he was up for best picture with Nightmare Alley.
OTHER MENTIONS:
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish from DreamWorks, starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, is nominated for best animated feature. And Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, the latest from Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, got one nod for Iranian-French cinematographer Darius Khondji.
