A Latin American film is also a contender in a documentary competition.
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.
Riz Ahmed as Ruben in Sound of Metal. Photo: Amazon
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 One and Only Ivan. Photo: Disney
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.
Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Photo: Netflix.
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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