Emilia Perez starring Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascón and Selena Gomez, is a gender-bending, genre-busting, phantasmagorical, operatic, hyper theatrical, electrifying crime and redemption melodrama.

Saldana plays Rita Mora Castro, an attorney tasked with negotiating a sex change operation for Manitas Del Monte, an arch drug cartel criminal . In a dark, unsettling scene, we meet the mobster with Gascón eerily portraying Del Monte in heavy prosthetic make-up.

Del Monte is born again as Emilia Perez. She tries to make up for her previous evil ways by helping  grief-stricken Mexican citizens find loved ones who have disappeared, often at Manitas’ hands. It’s a nice try, but sometimes redemption is a bridge too far.

Emilia Perez is a powerful Latina centric film. Saldana showcases her singing and dancing talents. Gomez, as Jessi, Manitas’ clueless spouse, gives a surprisingly strong and tough performance proving she has the acting chops for more demanding dramatic roles. Gascón shines in the dual role of Manitas and Emilia.

 The three leads, Saldana, Gascón and Gomez all shared a Best Actress Award for their performances in the film at the Cannes Film Festival. They will all get Oscar nominations. Hopefully, they won’t cancel one another out.

Writer / director Jacques Audiard will, no doubt, be considered for an Oscar for Best Director, as well as the movie for Best Picture. Could this, at long last, finally be the year Latinos make their too often overlooked and snubbed presence known at the Academy Awards? Hope so, otherwise the Academy will be on the receiving end of an acid drenched “WTF were you thinking? ¡Fideo Loco! blog from yours truly.

Emilia Perez is streaming on Netflix.
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Karla Sofía Gascón , Zoe Saldana , Selena Gomez , Adriana Paz , Edgar Ramirez
Running time: 2 hr 10 minCast:  

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Known for celebrating diversity in the entertainment industry, LEJA commended Barraza for her humorously engaging and emotionally moving portrayal of Nana, the feisty and loving Mexican grandmother to Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle). Her scene-stealing performance resonated with audiences globally. The LEJA nomination not only recognizes Barraza’s exceptional talent but also acknowledges her significant impact as a Latina actress, paving the way for the Latino community in Hollywood.

The winners of the LEJA Awards will be announced virtually on Monday, February 12.

Barraza reflected on her nomination, stating, “I’m truly honored and thankful that the LEJA Awards have recognized me with this distinguished nomination. Being nominated is already a win for any actor, but to receive the nomination for this character of Nana, which I loved playing, means even more. My most important goal was to represent this beautiful part of the Latino community in the U.S., the brave women who immigrate to our beautiful country but work tirelessly to honor their roots.”

Adriana Barraza’s illustrious career has been marked by compelling performances, earning her accolades, including Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations in 2006 for Best Supporting Actress in “Babel.” In addition to her role in “Blue Beetle,” Barraza starred in a heartwarming supporting role in the film “Monica” alongside Trace Lysette and Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson. The film premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, receiving an 11-minute standing ovation. Barraza also captivated audiences in the lead role of Maestra Georgina in the Netflix original Mexican feature film “El Ultimo Vagón,” directed by Ernesto Contreras. The film achieved significant success on Netflix, holding the position of the #1 Spanish-language movie worldwide for six consecutive weeks and standing out as one of the most successful Netflix films of 2023. Barraza’s dedication to her craft and her ability to breathe life into unforgettable characters solidify her as a formidable presence in the entertainment industry.

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Actors Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Ariana DeBose and director Guillermo Del Toro stand out among the 14 Latinos nominated for the 94th Academy Awards. Consequently, Twenty-twenty-two and 2006 tie as the years with the most Latino candidacies in Oscars history. Notably, this year’s nods for Latinos are across the board and include nominations in the most coveted categories. 

Del Toro’s film noir Nightmare Alley nabbed four noms, including Best Picture for the Mexican cineaste, while Disney’s Encanto, set in a magical Colombia, got three, including Animated Feature Film. 

Two other movies with Latino connections that received multiple nominations are the biopic Being the Ricardos with three, including one for Bardem as a leading actor, and West Side Story with seven, with one for DeBose as a supporting actress.

INCLUSION, LAYERED STORIES
This year’s inclusion of three Latino noms in the acting categories is a reminder of the power and impact of inclusion, diversity and accurate and multi-dimensional portrayals of minorities in film, for which Latinos have been pressing for decades. The noms were arguably made possible by projects with Latino themes and featuring prominent Latino roles, namely Encanto, West Side Story and Being the Ricardos. Moreover, the candidacies of Bardem, Cruz and DeBose are history-making. 

TWO SPANISH ICONS BOTH WITH FOUR NOMS EACH
In what may be a first, Spain’s husband-wife duo Bardem and Cruz could be the couple that has each received four Oscar nominations and won an Oscar each.

Bardem’s Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar nom for Being the Ricardos is his fourth for the Oscars, winning for his role of a psychopathic killer in No Country for Old Men in 2008. His nod this year ties him with Mexican-born thespian Anthony Quinn as the Latino male actor with the most Academy Award nominations in history. 

In a statement released by Bardem yesterday, he congratulated his fellow nominee in the best actor category, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield.

The 2022 Oscars edition also brings a fourth Oscar nod for Cruz, who competes in Actress in a Supporting Role for Madres Paralelas, her seventh collaboration with acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar. This year’s fourth nomination makes Cruz the Latina actress with the most Oscar nominations. In 2008 she won the Academy Award for the romantic dramedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen.

Other nominees in this category include Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart.

LATINA & BLACK
DeBose, a proud Afro-Latina, received a nod for Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reimagined musical West Side Story. She is the first U.S. born Latina of black descent to be nominated for the Academy Award. The role of Anita won her the Golden Globe earlier this year.

Rita Moreno played Anita in the original 1960 musical feature, taking home both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for her role. History could repeat itself if DeBose can replicate Moreno’s win of both these two industry awards for playing the same character.

In her first shot for the Academy Award, Debose joins a category that includes nominees Jessie Buckley, Judi Dench, Kirsten Dunst and Aunjanue Ellis.

‘ENCHANTING’ PRODUCTION, MUSIC
All three nominations for Encanto include Latinos. In Best Animated Film, Chicana filmmaker Yvett Merino is one of three producers sharing the honor. 

The Disney animated film’s two other nods are for music. Lin-Manuel Miranda vies for the prize for Original Song with the Spanish-language ballad “Dos Oruguitas,” giving the acclaimed Puerto Rican a second chance to become an EGOT. The prestigious acronym distinguishes a handful of artists who have won the four top American awards in entertainment, an Emmy for TV, Grammy for music, Oscar for film and a Tony for theater. Having won the first three, Miranda lost his first bid for an Academy Award in 2017 for writing the theme song for another Disney film, Moana. 

Miranda’s competition this year includes renowned songwriters Beyoncé, Van Morrison and Billie Eilish.

“Dos Oruguitas” is also making history as the first song fully in Spanish nominated for an Oscar. While Coco’s Academy Award-winning “Remember Me” included lyrics in Spanish, the ballad was a bilingual composition with about half in English and half in Spanish.

Encanto‘s Germaine Franco is a first-time Oscar nominee competing in the Original Score category. She is not the only contender of Latino descent in her category. Franco faces Spanish Alberto Iglesias, the composer for Madres Paralelas.

Carlos López Estrada of Mexico, who stands out among the producers of Raya and the Last Dragon that also vies for the award for Best Animated Film. 

SEVERAL CONTENDERS IN SHORTS
Additionally, five Latino producers, including a woman, battle it out with short films. 

Chile’s Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz compete in Short Film Animated with the Spanish-language Bestia, a stop-motion movie about a secret police agent during the Chilean military dictatorship. Other nominees in the same category are Spain-born Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez with The Windshield Wiper centered on a man who ponders about love while smoking at a cafe.  

For her part, K.D. Dávila stands out among the candidates for an Oscar for Short Film Live action. The Mexican-American filmmaker competes with Please Hold, about a young man whose life is derailed and finds himself at the mercy of automated justice.

The Oscars will broadcast live March 27.

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Sixteen films from Spanish, Portuguese and French-speaking Latin American countries, as well as Spain, are among 93 submissions eligible for consideration in the 2022 Oscar’s International Feature Film category, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

While some of the entries have not yet had their required qualifying release, the Academy’s list in the international category includes: Argentina’s The Intruder, Bolivia’s The Great Movement, Brazil’s Private Desert, Peru’s Powerful Chief, Chile’s White on White, Colombia’s Memoria, Costa Rica’s Clara Sola, Dominican Republic’s Holy Beasts, Ecuador’s Submersible, Haiti’s Freda, Mexico’s Prayers for the Stolen, Panama’s Plaza Catedral, Spain’s The Good Boss, Uruguay’s The Broken Glass Theory and Venezuela’s The Inner Glow.

All International Feature Film submissions must fulfill the release requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process of AMPAS, which presents the golden statuette. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture–more than 40 minutes–produced outside the United States with a predominantly–more than 50 percent–non-English dialogue track.

Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category, according to the organization. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony is slated to take place at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in Los Angeles March 27.

Featured Photo: Actor Jesus Luque is Elisban in director Henry Vallejo’s ‘Powerful Chief’ (Manco Cápac), Peru’s official Oscar entry. (Photo: The Herrera Agency) 

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Bronx-born actress Eileen Galindo has enjoyed a varied career, working in live theater, television, film, including working in the lucrative world of voiceovers. All her work has lead to some interesting projects this year.

At an early age, Galindo yearned to be “part of something” in show business. However, her family, who had emigrated from Cuba by way of Miami, had no connections whatsoever to the entertainment industry.

After working and studying in New York, Galindo became involved in the non-traditional casting movement putting herself on the picket lines to encourage Broadway producers to endorse diversity in casting. She also took up writing and did two one-woman shows Off-Broadway, one of them directed by Wynn Handman.

Moving to Los Angeles, Galindo landed in the Mark Taper Forum repertory company. “We did some wonderful work at the Forum when Gordon Davidson was running the joint,” she recalled. “I was in The House of Bernarda Alba, starring Chita Rivera and Culture Clash‘s Chavez Ravine in 2003. In 2010, Galindo was nominated for the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Performance in The Clean House at International City Theatre in Long Beach.

Currently, Galindo is part of the Oscar buzz euphoria.  She co-starred in the short film The Letter Room which has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Ex Machina’s Oscar Isaac plays the lead in the short, which is directed and executive produced by Elvira Lind, Isaac’s wife, and collaborator.

The Letter Room is a dark prison comedy about the secret life of a correctional officer who gets transferred to a job in the letter room. “I play Irene, the prison’s warden,” Galindo explains. “Elvira was inspired to write the film when she reflected on the isolated, single 40-something-year-old men she came in contact with while in Denmark,” she goes on to explain. “These men lived solitary lives. They never married and never had children. The film does go into the loneliness that exists in these facilities.”

The Letter Room was filmed at the Arthur Kill Correctional facility in Staten Island, a decommissioned prison with all the required “barbed wire, the cells, everything,” Galindo recalled.

The film screened at various film festivals around the U.S. to critical acclaim and In March 2021 they learned it had been nominated for an Oscar. “As we all know, getting features made in Hollywood is not an easy thing, especially by a woman,” Galindo explained.  “So Elvira decided to start with a short, if that graduates to something bigger and better, that would be great.”

Galindo exudes a refreshing optimism, especially in light of the current restrictive times. “Well, I’ve been working,” she laughs. She is currently recurring on the second season of the CBS All Access hit series Why Women Kill, created and produced by Marc Cherry. He also created Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids. Galindo plays Isabel, Rita’s maid, played by series regular Lana Padilla. “I am encouraged because All Access has morphed into a more significant, better thing called Paramount Plus, a streaming network that doesn’t just include CBS programming but also has Paramount content, Nickelodeon, MTV, all sorts of things.

Why Women Kill is an anthology series, and each season does not pick up from the previous season left off. Galindo clarifies. “This year, it takes place in 1949 Hollywood, exploring the façades people hide behind and the lengths they go to to be accepted and be part of something.” We’re all doing double-duty. As for now, we are Why Women Kill. David Warren is our producing director. Lana, a Puerto Rican and Italian from Brooklyn, is a joy to work with.”

Looking towards the future, Galindo is wrapping up her work on Why Women Kill and looking forward to its premiere within a few months. However, the 93rd Academy Awards is what she is anxiously waiting for.  April 25 will be the date she can finally say (or not) she worked in an Academy award-winning film. As Galindo often says, “Well see.”

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While no Latinos compete in the Oscars’ major categories this year, several stand out in sound, special effects and make-up, including Carlos Cortés Navarrete, Santiago Colomo Martínez and Sergio López Rivera. Chile’s documentary El Agente Topo (The Mole Agent) also received a nod.

The 93rd Oscar nominations were announced by the actor husband-and-wife team of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas from London.

Cortés Navarrete, a sound engineer from Mexico, is nominated in the sound category for Sound of Metal, a documentary about a heavy-metal drummer whose life is turned upside down when he starts to lose his hearing. He shares the nom with Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc and Phillip Bladh. Sound of Metal competes against four other films, Greyhound, Mank, News of the World and Soul. This is Cortés Navarrete’s first Oscar nom.

On its way to the Oscar nom, the Sound of Metal’s sound team has won in three other competitions, including the International Online Cinema Awards, the Latino Entertainment Journalists Film Awards and the Satellite Awards. The group also is a candidate for this year’s BAFTA Awards.

Cortés Navarrete has also won a Silver Award, Mexico’s Oscar equivalent, for the 2016 documentary film Tempestad, about two women victimized by corruption and injustice in Mexico but who survived with love, dignity and resistance.

Colomo Martínez, a native of Spain, is a contender in the Oscar visual effects category for The One and Only Ivan, the animated Disney feature about a gorilla trying to piece together his past while making plans to escape from captivity. Colomo Martinez shares the nomination with his colleagues Nick Davis, Greg Fisher and Ben Jones. Competing against The One and Only Ivan are Love and Monsters, The Midnight Sky, Mulan and Tenet.

The film won Colomo Martínez and his visual effects team an award from the Hollywood Post Alliance and is a candidate for a BAFTA Award. Colomo Martinez’s film credits include Passengers, The Jungle Book, Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficent. 

Another Spaniard, López Rivera, vies for the Oscar for make-up and hairstyle for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the biopic about the so-called “mother of the blues.” He shares the nomination with colleagues Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson. The other projects nominated in this category are Emma, Hillbilly Elegy, Mank and Pinocchio.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom has already collected a few wins, including an award from the Hollywood Critics Association. They are also contenders for a BAFTA Award.

López Rivera’s make-up career spans over three decades, including the 1997 romcom film The Opposite of Sex and television series like Felicity, Monk, Private Practice, and more recently How to Get Away With Murder, the latter also starring Ma Rainy’s Viola Davis.

The Chilean film El Agente Topo competes for the Oscar for best documentary feature. The documentary is about a private investigator who hires an older man to go undercover in a nursing home. Multiple-international award winner Maite Alberdi directs it.  It competes for an Oscar with Collective, Crip Camp, My Octopus Teacher and Time.

El Agente Topo has won a Goya Award and Independent Spirit Award. The documentary was also shortlisted for an Academy Award in the best international feature film category, along with two other Latin American films, Guatemala’s La Llorona (The Wailing Woman) and Mexico’s Ya No Estoy Aquí (I’m No Longer Here). However, none of those are among the finalists.

The 93rd Oscars will be held on Sun., April 25, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries.

Check out the complete list of Oscar nominees here.

Featured Top Photo: El Agente Topo. Photo: Gravitas Ventures.

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More than 400 films will compete at this year’s annual HollyShorts Film Festival that will take place Nov. 9 through 15.

Most official selections are from the United States while over 120 come from other countries, including a few from Latin American nations like Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Spain. Forty percent of all competing shorts are directed by women, according to fest organizers. HollyShorts is an Academy Award-qualifying festival.

This fest’s 16th annual edition will be held online over its own streaming platform Bitpix and will also host a short film market for the first time, the fest announced. Targeting leading buyers of shorts, the HollyShorts Market Week will take place the week after the competition screenings.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Some standouts of the fest program include: Michael Schilf’s The Fixer, starring Jesse C. Boyd, Veronica Diaz Carranza and Danny Trejo; Lucifer stars Kevin Alejandro and Lesley-Ann Brandt’s Adult Night; and Jose Acevedo’s Eagle, starring Daniel Taveras, Antonio Ortiz and Roy Wood Jr.

Another highlight is Sweet Potatoes by Los Angeles-based Rommel Villa Barriga, one of three winners in this year’s Student Academy-Award narrative category. 

Great Britain made history at the festival this year by becoming the nation with the most shorts ever accepted in HollyShorts with 30 films in competition, followed by Canada (14), and France (12). Spain and Mexico each have 3 shorts in competition while Peru and Brazil each have one.

OTHER SELECTIONS
Notable films include the animated short Cruel Shoes written and narrated by Academy Honorary Award winner Steve Martin; I Wish For You featuring Jeremy Irons; the Will Ferrell comedy David directed by Zach Woods of television series Avenue 5 fame; Deon Taylor’s 8:46 starring Tyrese Gibson and featuring CeeLo Green; and the high school drama At Last directed by Lorena Gordon and featuring George Lopez.

Founded in 2005 by Daniel Sol and Theo Dumont, HollyShorts Film Festival showcases works that are 40- minutes or less in various categories such as short animation, short live action, short documentary, music video, webisode, commercials, youth film and digital microbudget. The fest was recently designated an Academy Awards qualifying festival, according to HollyShorts official website.

Before co-founding HollyShorts, Sol worked at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Pasadena International Film Festival and Lionsgate, according to his Facebook page.

Check out the trailer below for The Fixer.

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