Oscar 2023: the day Peru was about to lift its first statuette

On Valentine’s Day 2009, news reached Peru that a local film had won the Golden Bear for Best Foreign Film at the Berlinale. The emotion was great at home and for many months it was believed that this would be the maximum recognition that the film with Magaly Solier would achieve. But in early 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 82nd edition of the Oscar.

“The scared titmousewas nominated in the category of non-English speaking foreign films along with films such as “Ajami” (Israel), “The White Ribbon” (Germany), “A Prophet” (France) and Argentina “The secret of his eyes”. Soon the eyes of the world were on the director of the film, Claudia Llosathere Magaly Solierthe young woman from Ayacucho who preferred working in the fields to the cameras and reflectors that began to follow her wherever she went.

On the night of March 7, 2010, Peruvian televisions picked up the retransmission of the Oscars and reacted to the appearance of Magaly Solier on the same red carpet where Western film stars such as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Christopher Plummer paraded. Penelope Cruz, Stanley Tucci, James Cameron, Morgan Freeman and many more. Finally, the expected moment was about to happen.

The directors of “All About My Mother” (Pedro Almodóvar) and “Kill Bill” (Quentin Tarantino) were responsible for presenting the nominees in the category that the Peruvian film had reached. One by one, the films were named until the entire Dolby Theater heard “Elsa”, the iconic song by the well-known group Los Destellos which had been chosen to accompany the Peruvian film Americans called “The milk of sorrow “.

The statuette was raised by Juan José Campanella, director of “El secreto de sus ojos”, but at home the joy continued. Peru had made history by arriving for the first time at one of the most important awards in the world of cinema. Since then, attention has been focused on Claudia Llosa’s work as a director, which has led to discussions with films such as “Loxoro”, “Don’t cry, fly” and “Rescue Distance”.

Since 2009, Magaly Solier has led a career that never ceases to amaze, both from a cinematographic and musical point of view. There have been twenty film projects in which she has been involved since the premiere of “La teta asusada”, being the best known “I am still”, “Magallanes”, “Retablo” and “Lina de Lima” where she has played a migrant Peruvian who dreams and sings from Chile.

Her work in “Magallanes”, a film directed by Salvador de Solar and based on the novel of the same name by Alonso Cueto, was nominated in the Best Actress category at the Lima Film Festival, Huelva International Film Festival, Tunki Awards, Platino Awards, Latin American Film Festival of Catalonia and Mexico’s Fénix Awards. “Retablo”, a film in which she played Anatolia, was nominated for best Ibero-American film at the Goya Awards.

Since the arrival of “La teta asustada” on the big screen, precious films have been developed in Peru that have triumphed in various festivals. “Canción sin number”, “Willaq Pirqa”, “Manco Capac”, “Rosa Chumbe”, “NN”, “La revolución y la tierra”, “El mudo”, “Octubre” among others add nominations and awards in waiting as the Academy looks south again to return to Oscar nominees.