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Colombia hails first nomination for 2016 Oscar Award in history

Xinhua, January 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Colombia hailed with big expectation on Thursday the 2016 Oscar Award nomination of the movie "Embrace of the Serpent" as Best Foreign Language Film, making the country's first movie be nominated for the award in history.

"It is a big surprise for us to be nominated. I am really falling in the news," Colombian director Ciro Guerra said in a press conference after hearing the 2016 Oscar nomination, saying that it is an honor "to be the first (nomination of a Colombian movie) and be the representative of Latin America."

The movie, produced in 2015, tells two stories taking place simultaneously in 1909 and 1940, in which an Amazonian shaman Karamakate travels with two scientists German Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American Richard Evans Schultes in search of a rare sacred plant named "yakruna" that helps cure many diseases.

The stories were inspired by the diaries written by the two scientists during their field work in the Colombian Amazon rainforest, which show part of the splendor of the Colombian Amazon landscapes in black and white which was filmed in isolated areas of the country's geography.

"What wonderful news for Colombian cinema: "Embrace of the Serpent" of Ciro Guerra was nominated to Oscar Awards by The Academy," Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos wrote minutes after the nomination being made public.

According to the country's El Tiempo daily network, the movie has already attracted more than 100,000 spectators in Colombia alone since its release in May 2015, and after Feb. 17 it will be available in Argentina, Canada, France, Spain and the United States, while it is also expected to be on big screens in China and Thailand.

The movie has already won the Art Cinema Award at 2015 Cannes Film Festival and is now nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

The Colombian nomination was confirmed on Thursday by actor John Krasinksi and it competes in the category with Son of Saul from Hungary, Mustang from France, At War from Denmark and Theeb from Jordan. The awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 28 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Endi