Mexico has once again chosen Tatiana Huezo to represent the country at the Oscars. The filmmaker’s follow-up to “Tempestad,” a doc that Mexico submitted for consideration in the International Feature category at the 2018 Academy Awards, is eyeing a trip to next year’s ceremony. A press release confirmed that “Prayers for the Stolen” is entering the 2022 Oscar race.
An adaptation of Jennifer Clement’s novel of the same name, “Prayers for the Stolen” is set in a solitary town in the Mexican mountains where being a girl or having a daughter is seen as a ticking time bomb. Mothers give their girls short hairstyles, blacken their teeth, and show them hiding places underground in an effort to protect them from local cartels who take girls away.
“Prayers for the Stolen” premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Other women-directed titles hoping to score Oscar nods in the International Feature category include Indonesia’s pick, Kamila Andini’s “Yuni,” and Germany’s pick, Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man.” The former is a coming-of-age story about an ambitious teenage girl facing pressure to marry and the latter is a sci-fi rom-com about a researcher pressured to participate in a study that sees her living with a humanoid robot tailor-made to be her perfect life partner.
The 2022 Oscars are scheduled to take place March 27.
