Oscar 2014 Best Foreign Film Predictions: Why Mexico Chose 'Heli' and Not Eugenio Derbez's 'Instructions Not Included'
Mexico has finally submitted its entry for the Academy Award 2014 Foreign film nominations. After scrutinizing many films released this year, Mexico has chosen 'Heli' as their contender in the foreign film category.
'Heli 'tells a story of a seventeen year old boy who lives with his wife and sister. The film follows their life and their struggle with drug violence and corruption.
Director Amat Escalante is elated with the news of his film being sent to Oscars. He told 'Variety', "The film is a fiction. It's about characters, a family that is destroyed by the violence and attempts to rebuild. Mexico's drug war is just the context."
The film was also sent to Cannes film festival as the representative of Mexico for the best foreign film. After its premiere in Cannes the film received a cold response, with one critic from Hollywood reporter saying that, "Heli is undoubtedly made with serious intent, but it is also relentlessly depressing and curiously uninvolving, with limited audience appeal beyond the film-festival bubble."
In spite of getting lukewarm response from the audience as well as the critics, the film would represent Mexico at the most prestigious award ceremony. The films buffs in Mexico emphasized on sending Eugenio Derbez's "Instructions Not Included" for the best foreign film category. However, contrary to audience wish and Derbez's popularity "Heli" was selected owing its closeness to Mexico's current cultural trend.
In the past few years more than seven films have been nominated in the Best Foreign film category. Alejandor Gonzalez Inarritu's "Biutiful," Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrith," Inarritu's "Amores Perros" and Carlos Carrera's "El Crimen del Padre Amaro are few of the names.
What remains to see would "Heli" prove its mettle at the 2014 Academy Awards ?