Lila Avilés’ award-winning feature debut could be heading all the way to the Oscars. Mexico has submitted “The Chambermaid” for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2019 Academy Awards. Should the drama land a nod, Avilés would make history as the first woman director to receive a nomination for Mexico. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news. 

Set in a luxurious hotel in Mexico City, “The Chambermaid” is a portrait of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a hardworking maid determined to change her circumstances. The young single mother enrolls in the hotel’s adult education program, seeks a promotion as a cleaner on the hotel’s executive floor, and is famously professional among her co-workers, refusing to be distracted from her responsibilities at work. But “The Chambermaid” is not a feel-good, tone-deaf story about how dedication pays off — Eve’s efforts are rarely rewarded. The hotel guests treat her as if she’s invisible, or like her existence is an inconvenience. She rarely gets to see her son. She showers at work because she doesn’t have hot water at home.

Avilés told us that she wanted to “combine documentary with fiction in this film.” She spent years following maids in their daily lives.

“The Chambermaid’s” festival run kicked off at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. The drama has picked up honors at Marrakech International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Portland International Film Festival, among others. The pic is in theaters now.

Other women-directed titles in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race include Mounia Meddour’s “Papicha,” repping Algeria, and Germany’s pick, Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher.” The former is set in the 1990s during the Algerian Civil War and tells the story of girlfriends who make money selling clothes, and the latter centers on a nine-year-old girl in the child welfare system.

The Oscars will take place February 9.