This is how you win an Oscar: this is what Argentina, Chile and Mexico did when they were nominated

The awards season prepares to reward the best of the last year. The Oscar awards 2022 are among the most anticipated events; and one of the most disputed categories is Best International Film, where this year projects from Japan, Denmark, Norway, Bhutan and Italy compete. However, what have Latin American countries done to boost their nominations in recent years?

Peru currently has the support of the Commission for the Promotion of Peru for Exports and Tourism (PromPerú). The executive president, Amora Carbajal, said that they are in charge of managing the communication and public relations strategy so that national films are present in the race for the award granted by the Academy. Next, we detail what countries like Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Argentina have done with their flag ribbons when pointing to the Oscar.

The success of “Rome”

Let’s start with the case of the film directed by Alfonso Cuarón. “Roma”, released in 2018, was the first Mexican film to win the hard-fought category of Best International Film during the 91st Academy Awards.

The race to get the statuette involves several factors. So, what was the key to the success of “Roma”? Mainly marketing, funded by streaming giant Netflix. Among the activities carried out to promote the film, parties were organized with the presence of celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron.

Likewise, the contracting of advertising in the written and digital press was included, in addition to television advertisements in the United States such as a two-minute spot broadcast by the CBS network, which cost around 170 thousand dollars. In addition, the members of the Academy received books plus a poster of the tape autographed by Alfonso Cuarón.

The head of the advertising strategy for the Mexican film starring Yalitza Aparicio was Lisa Taback, an award expert who worked on the “Moonlight” campaign, a film that won three statuettes in 2017. This shows the great commitment that Netflix had with ” Rome”, with which he achieved 10 nominations for the Academy Awards. Much of the success that led them to win the statuette for Best International Film was obviously rooted in advertising strategies.

The keys to achieving the statuette

For its part, Chile has had the opportunity to run in the Oscar awards twice in the last decade. First in 2012 with “No” by Pablo Larraín, and five years later in 2017 with the film “A fantastic woman” by Sebastián Lelio.

First of all, it participated in various film festivals around the world. It won the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film, followed by the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Festival and won the Spirit Award for Independent Film for Best International Film. Another key point was its exhibition at the Telluride Film Festival.

“Telluride was key because it is a place that concentrates a lot of members of the Academy. It is very influential in editorial terms, in the American press, and the film did very well there. The premiere was on a Friday afternoon, a super schedule. The winner of the Oscar“The shape of water”, a Saturday night”, Chilean producer Juan de Dios Larraín told El Mercurio.

The release date in the United States theaters was also of great importance for the notoriety of “A fantastic woman”. This, because once the nominees are announced, no more campaigning can be done, but the film was in theaters and people could access it. In addition, we did some “Q&A” (“question and answer”) after giving functions, which the Academy does allow”.

It was not revealed how much was spent on publicity for “A Fantastic Woman” to win the Oscarbut it is known that its budget for the production was 64 thousand dollars and during its first weeks in theaters it managed to raise around 657 thousand dollars, according to information from the Box Office.

Learned lessons

In 2015, Colombia received the news that “Embrace of the Serpent” would compete for Best International Film at the Oscar awards. This led her to become the first Colombian film nominated for an Academy Award. Director Ciro Guerra, after his campaign for the Oscar where he did not manage to raise the statuette, he shared some of the lessons that this campaign taught him. In the first place, it is that the exhibition of the film in the United States is important, because that way you have “your foot in the territory”; without it it would not be possible to think about the nomination.

Secondly, as for Chile, Guerra considered that film festivals are the key settings for the film, since it allows the entire audiovisual project to be shown internationally. For example, “Embrace of the Serpent” participated in Cannes 2015 where it won the Art Cinema Award.

Finally, according to the Colombian filmmaker, he revealed that public relations drive the film’s nomination, but they are not really the ones that define victory. This leads to understanding how the Academy works and making them fall in love with the film.

lack of budget

who got the coveted statuette. Directed by Juan José Campanella, it was the second film to win after “La historia oficial” (1985).

Among the obstacles that Juan José Campanella was able to identify is the lack of budget to make films in Latin America. “Money, first of all. Then the money. And lastly, the money. Apart from those three obstacles, there is only the money. Oh well, and also the money. Of the rest, plenty”He said in an interview with the BBC. However, they managed to win the distinguished recognition.

As revealed by the director, in that edition of the Oscar it was still mandatory for the Academy jury to see all the nominated films, and this would have influenced the victory. However, that has changed over the years and it is likely that for this reason some well-known films do not achieve a nomination.

Each of the Latin American countries that has participated in the race of the Oscar has lived the experience in a different way. Mexico and Chile had the support of large entertainment companies such as Netflix and Sony Classics respectively; In the case of Argentina, the point in favor was the rules of the Academy during that year.

The 94th edition of the Oscar awards will be held on March 27 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California (United States). The film “The power of the dog”, directed by Jane Campion, leads the race for the Oscar Awards with 12 of the nominations