‘Second Prize’, by Isaki Lacuesta, will be Spain’s representative for the Oscar for best international film | Culture

Second prizeby Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez, has been chosen by the Film Academy to represent Spain at the Oscar for best international film. Voters have chosen it from a shortlist that also included Frame, by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, and The blue star, by Javier Macipe. The reading was given at the Academy headquarters by actor Eduardo Noriega.

Second prizeby Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez, winner of the Golden Biznaga in Malaga, travels to Granada in the nineties to contemplate the origin of the group indie Los Planetas, although through the legend and mystique that surrounds the band. Lacuesta joined the project after an initial push from Jonás Trueba, who finally decided not to direct it, and rewrote the entire script with Fernando Navarro, author of the initial script and who knew the group from his native Granada. He focused on the legend of Los Planetas. “I told them my intuitions. We were looking for the cast and locating filming locations, and we were writing the script in parallel. So I told them that I more or less imagine a movie about a vampire and a ghost, with a fantastic side, about their legend. The disagreement began, and there Jota (the band’s singer) explained to me that the clash with Jonás arose from the fact that he wanted to make a film about the album, but not about how to record the album, which was Jonás’ idea,” explained the filmmaker in an interview with Babelia. What attracted Lacuesta was how the songs on the album A week in a bus engine, In 1998, they talked about the relationship between the singer and the guitarist, who on screen were baptized as such, without proper names, fictionalized: “They denied that they were confessional songs. I found it funny that after a few months, when Florent promoted his solo album, he explained that he had discovered that the lyrics did indeed reveal that relationship. Anyway, at each moment everyone will say something different.”

In a video call after the selection was announced, Isaki Lacuesta said that he did not see any strong points in his film, “but only its weaknesses.” “And I hope that the English subtitles will improve the result,” he joked. The film has already been screened at 15 festivals and will be released in France in the first quarter of 2025. The rest of the international sales are, according to its producers, currently being finalised. Producer Cristóbal García said that, after seeing Los Planetas at the last Sonorama, where they took photos with the band in the dressing room, they already know for sure that Jota, their leader, did not like the film.

The creative process of Second prize was marked by leukemia, first, and then the death of Lacuesta’s daughter and the screenwriter Isa Campo. Hence the presence of Pol Rodríguez as director in the co-signature of the film. Babelia, The filmmaker said: “I decided to shoot the film remotely. I thought about what would happen if I broke up, and I told him Pol Rodriguez, My usual assistant, if I could co-direct it, and he had thought exactly the same. There was a very nice part of shooting with Luna (his daughter), because when we moved to Barcelona (she lives in Girona), for the treatment, they installed two screens so we could see the shot on one, and the crew on the other.” His daughter passed away in September and he dedicated the award and a song to her when he collected the Biznaga de Oro in Malaga.

Last year, the selected one was The snow society, by Juan Antonio Bayona, who surpassed 20,000 species of bees and Close your eyes. The drama about the plane crash in the Andes was nominated for an international Oscar, although it ended up winning The area of ​​interest, UK candidate, against the Spanish representative, I captain (Italy), Perfect Days (Japan) and Teachers’ room (Germany). Before Bayona’s film, the last Spanish candidates to achieve a nomination in this category were Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodóvar (2019) and Deep seaby Alejandro Amenábar, who won the award in 2004.

The Hollywood Academy closes the period for submitting nominations for the 97th edition of the Oscars on November 14. In 2020, the record number of accepted films since the category was created in 1956 was reached: 93 films met the pre-established norms and were accepted. In the last edition, 88 countries were represented. The shortlist for best international film will be announced on December 17, and the final nominations will be made public on January 17, 2005. The gala will be held in Los Angeles on March 2.

This race is usually led by the winners of the major festivals. However, both in Cannes and (Now, by Sean Baker) as in Venice (The room next door, (by Pedro Almodóvar) won English-language films, which opens up the competition even more. Among the candidates already presented this year, for example, the German selection stands out, The seed of the sacred figby Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof, after the filmmaker fled his country, where he was facing an eight-year prison sentence. The film is a German co-production and Rasoulof is now living there, where he lived decades ago. Another strong candidate is the Irish Kneecap, illustrating the story of the eponymous hip-hop duo, the first to sing in modern Irish Gaelic and which is now being released in Spain with Michael Fassbender in a supporting role. Cambodia sends Meeting with Pol Pol, by Rithy Panh, with French actors Irène Jacob, Grégoire Colin and Cyril Gueï. Chile is going The place of the other, supported by Netflix, which is competing in the upcoming San Sebastian competition and directed by the double Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi, thanks to The Mole Agent and Infinite memory. Plus, they’re already in the race. The devil’s toilet (Austria), Triumph (Bulgaria), Universal Language (Canada), Baghdad Messi (Iraq), Family Time (Finland), Semmelweis (Hungary), Cloud (Japan), Heaven is Beneath Mother’s Feet (Kyrgyzstan), the lively Flow (Latvia), Drowning Dry (Lithuania), Three kilometers to the end of the world (Romania), Old Fox (Taiwan), Life (Türkiye), There is a door there (Uruguay) and Palestine From Ground Zeroa collection of 22 short films made since the war in Gaza. Another of the most anticipated decisions is that of France, where a committee of eleven members chooses between a quartet of films led by two heavyweights such as The Count of Monte Cristo and Emilia Perezby Jacques Audiard.

This category is open to films of any format (documentary, fiction, animation or hybrid formats) of at least 40 minutes in length and with dialogues that cannot exceed 50% in English. In addition, they must have been released in their country of origin between November 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024.