Spain unveils its finalists for next edition of Oscars

The list of candidates to represent Spain in the 2017 edition of the Oscars has been narrowed down to three: Iciar Bollain’s “El olivo” (The Olive Tree), Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta” and Paula Ortiz’s “La novia” (The Bride).

One of those three films will be selected on Sept. 7 to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards in late February, the interim president of the Spanish Film Academy, Yvonne Blake, announced Friday at that organization’s headquarters in Madrid.

Members of the academy chose those movies from 42 pictures screened between Nov. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016, in accordance with Oscar rules.

The second round will begin on Aug. 23 and end on Sept. 6.

This year’s voting has been moved up by nearly a month to allow more time for promotional efforts, Blake said, recalling that prior to this year Spain was the last country to announce its candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

“La novia” is an adaptation of late Spanish dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca’s tragedy “Bodas de Sangre” (Blood Wedding) that stars Inma Cuesta, Asier Etxeandia and Alex Garcia, while “El olivo,” which has Spain’s economic crisis a backdrop, tells the story of a young woman, Alma (Anna Castillo), who embarks on a journey to recover the greatest of her family’s 2,000yearold olive trees.

“Julieta,” regarded as the most sober drama in Almodovar’s ouvre, is inspired by several of Canadian Nobel Prize in literature recipient Alice Munro’s short stories and stars Emma Suarez and Adriana Ugarte.