Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey will be Argentina’s submission in this year’s Academy Awards and Spanish Goya Awards, the Argentine Academy of Film Arts and Sciences announced on Monday. The announcement was made on the Academy’s YouTube channel during a ceremony that included a celebration of the institution’s 20th anniversary. The event featured members from the first Board of Directors, including directors Marcelo Piñeyro and Daniel Burman.
Kill the Jockey , which premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year, will compete in the Best International Feature and Best Ibero-American Film categories at the Oscars and the Goya Awards, respectively. Ortega’s latest work tells the story of Remo, a legendary jockey equal parts eccentric and self-destructive, and his pregnant partner Abril, also a jockey, who is weighing whether to have an abortion or continue her racing career. Both are employed by a powerful mobster, Sirena.
When Remo accidentally kills one of Sirena’s prized race horses, he puts out a hit on the titular jockey while Abril races against time to find him in Buenos Aires. The film stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart ( 120 Beats Per Minute ), Ursula Corberó ( Money Heist, Lift ) and Daniel Giménez Cacho ( Bardo , Zama ). Kill the Jockey was produced by Rei Pictures, Ortega’s own company El Despacho, Infinity Hill ( Puan , Argentina 1985 ), Warner Music Entertainment, and Exile, and counts Hollywood icon Benicio del Toro as one of its executive producers.
The film received funding and support from Argentina’s National Film Institute (INCAA), as well as Buenos Aires City’s Cash Rebate program. Ortega directed his first feature, Caja Negra (1999), starring Dolores Fonzi, at the age of 19. In the decades since, he has made several acclaimed films, including The Angel (2018), about real-life Argentine serial killer Carlos Robledo Puch.
The film premiered at Cannes and topped the box office for domestic productions that year. Argentina has won the Goya’s Best Ibero-American feature 19 times, including in 2009 for Juan José Campanella’s The Secret In Their Eyes and 2022 for Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 . Both films were also nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category, with Campanella’s film ultimately winning the award.
A first selection of 15 films for the Oscars’ Best International Film category will be announced on December 17, and the Academy will reveal its official nominees during its announcement ceremony on January 17..
