Spain has selected Oliver Laxe‘s Sirat, a near-future drama about the end of the world set to a thumping techno soundtrack, as its contender for the 2026 Oscars in the best international feature category.
The drama follows a father and son who hook up with a group of itinerant ravers in the deserts of Morocco. What starts as a search for the family’s lost daughter becomes something else when the world outside — as reported in static-heavy radio broadcasts — appears to collapse, leaving the group with only themselves to confront the threatening world around them.
Laxe’s fourth film premiered in Cannes, where it was a critical breakout, and won the jury prize. In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarke called it “an energizing film — a project determined to wake us up.”
Sirat was picked from a shortlist of three finalists, which also included Carla Simón’s Romería and Deaf by Eva Libertad.
Produced by Movistar Plus+ in collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar’s production company El Deseo, Filmes da Ermida, Uri Films, and 4a4 Productions, Sirat is being sold internationally by The Match Factory. Neon has domestic rights.
Spain is among the most successful countries at the Oscars, with a total of 20 nominations and four wins — for Begin the Beguine in 1983, Belle Époque in 1994, Almodóvar’s All About My Mother in 2000 and The Sea Inside in 2005 — all taking the Academy Award in the best international feature category. The last Spanish Oscar nominee in the category was J. A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow in 2024.
The Academy will announce the first shortlist of 15 films in contention for the 2026 best international feature Oscar on Dec. 16, 2025. The final nominations will be announced on Jan. 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards Ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.
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