Spain has picked Saturn Return, a 1990s-set biopic of Spanish indie rock band Los Planetas, to represent the country in the best international feature race for the 2025 Oscars.
Directed by Isaki Lacuesta And Pol Rodríguez, Saturn Return premiered at the Malaga Film Festival, winning prizes for best director, best editing and best Spanish film. It has been making the festival rounds, screening at the Seattle Film Festival, the Guadalajara International Film Festival, and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.
The film focuses on the band’s origin story in the late 1990s in Granada when Los Planetas was facing a crisis just before the making of an album that would transform them, and the Spanish music scene, forever. Daniel Ibáñez, Cristalino, Stéphanie Magnin, Mafo, Chesco Ruiz, and Edu Rejón star in Saturn Return. Lacuesta and Fernando Navarro penned the screenplay. Ikiru Films, La Terraza Films, Áralan Films, Bteam Prods, Sideral Cinema, Los Ilusos Films, and Toxicosmos AIE produced the movie, which Bteam Pictures distributed in Spain.
Lacuesta’s prviuos features include The Next Skin (2016), Between Two Waters (2018), and One Year, One Night (2022). Rodríguez directed the 2016 film Quatretondeta.
Spain is a regular contender in the Best International Feature race, with 21 nominations, most recently last year with J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, and 4 wins.
The deadline for submissions for the 96th Oscars is Nov. 14, 2024. The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 2.
