Bolivia has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film [nb 1] since 1995. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. [3] It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since. [4] Thirteen Bolivian films have been designated to compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Five have been accepted by AMPAS, three of which were directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia. So far, no Bolivian film has yet been nominated for an Oscar.
The Bolivian submission is designated by the Asociación de Cineastas Bolivianos (Asocine). [5]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. [4] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award. [3] Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Bolivia for review by the academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony. All films are spoken primarily in Spanish.
Year (Ceremony) | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Language(s) | Director | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 (68th) | Jonah and the Pink Whale | Jonás y la ballena rosada | Spanish | Juan Carlos Valdivia | Not nominated |
2003 (76th) | Sexual Dependency | Dependencia sexual | Spanish, English | Rodrigo Bellott | Not nominated |
2005 (78th) | Say Good Morning to Dad [A] | Di buen día a papá | Spanish | Fernando Vargas | Disqualified |
2006 (79th) | American Visa | Juan Carlos Valdivia | Not nominated | ||
2007 (80th) | Los Andes no creen en Dios [B] | Los Andes no creen en Dios | Antonio Eguino | Disqualified | |
2009 (82nd) | Zona Sur | Spanish, Aymara | Juan Carlos Valdivia | Not nominated | |
2012 (85th) | Insurgents [6] | Insurgentes | Spanish, Aymara, Quechua | Jorge Sanjinés | Withdrawn |
2014 (87th) | Forgotten [7] | Olvidados | Spanish | Carlos Bolado | Not nominated |
2016 (89th) | Sealed Cargo [8] | Carga Sellada | Julia Vargas-Weise | Not nominated | |
2017 (90th) | Dark Skull [9] | Viejo calavera | Kiro Russo | Not nominated | |
2018 (91st) | The Goalkeeper [10] | Muralla | Rodrigo Patiño | Not nominated | |
2019 (92nd) | Tu me manques [11] | Spanish, English | Rodrigo Bellott | Not nominated | |
2020 (93rd) | Chaco [12] | Aymara, Quechua, Spanish | Diego Mondaca | Not nominated | |
2021 (94th) | The Great Movement [13] | El Gran Movimiento | Spanish | Kiro Russo | Not nominated |
2022 (95th) | Utama [14] | Quechua, Spanish | Alejandro Loayza Grisi | Not nominated | |
2023 (96th) | The Visitor [15] | El visitante | Spanish | Martín Boulocq | Not nominated |
2024 (97th) | Own Hand [16] | Mano propia | Gory Patiño | Pending |
Three of Bolivia's submissions were directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia and two were co-productions with Mexico. Bolivia's first submission, Jonah and the Pink Whale, is an erotic drama set in the 1980s amidst an upper-class Bolivian family, against a backdrop of military politics and drug trafficking. Eleven years later, Valdivia was again in the competition with American Visa, a comedy-thriller about a Bolivian professor trying to get a visa to join his son and work illegally in the United States. Bolivia's most recent submission, Zona Sur, was also directed by Valdivia, but had no Mexican input. Zona Sur centers on a wealthy, white Bolivian divorcee who is living beyond her means in contemporary Bolivia, and her relationship with her three spoiled children and her two Aymara servants.
Sexual Dependency, a co-production with the United States, was Bolivia's second Oscar submission. Set in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Ithaca, New York, it tells five barely connected stories of teenagers and their early sexual experiences..