Bolivia’s selection committee has chosen to submit Rodrigo Bellott’s polemical Tu Me Manques to compete for the International Feature Film Academy Award.
The gay drama beat 11 other local films that were in contention.
“By supporting my film despite the controversy, Bolivia has proven that it is a progressive country, and that in the end, art and cinema will prevail,” said Bellott, who has seen his fourth film greeted by both glowing reviews and homophobic slurs since it bowed in August.
This is the second time Bellott represents Bolivia at the Oscars. His breakout film, “Sexual Dependency,” which earned the Fipresci Award in Locarno and screened at more than 65 international film fests, also became the country’s second official entry to the Oscar Awards in 2003, after an eight-year absence following Juan Carlos Valdivia’s “Jonas and the Pink Whale.”