Mexico’s Film Academy announced today that Gabriel Ripstein‘s 600 Miles (600 Millas) will be the country’s official submission in the Best Foreign Language category at the 88th Academy Awards. The film beat out the Guillermo del Toro produced drama The Thin Yellow Line and festival favorite Perpetual Sadness (La Tirisia).
Ripstein is the son of famed Mexican director Arturo Ripstein, whose films have represented Mexico in the Best Foreign Language category at the Oscars in five different occasions since the 70s.
600 Miles is Ripstein’s first feature film, which garnered him the Best First Feature Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Tim Roth as a U.S. agent who is kidnapped by a young Mexican arms trafficker. Their captive/captor relationship evolves into an odd friendship, which aims to humanize the complex interaction between the two neighboring countries. U.S rights for the film are still up for grabs.
Mexico has been nominated eight times in the Best Foreign Language category but has never nabbed the coveted trophy. The last time the country made it to the final five nominees was in 2011 with Alejandro González Iñarritu’s Biutiful.
Other Latin American countries have also announced their submissions including, Brazil’s The Second Mother, Colombia’s Embrace of the Serpent, and Chile’s The Club.
