On the eve of the limited nationwide theatrical release of Kléber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Brazil’s 2026 Oscar contender, Prime Video debuted Argentina’s own submission for Best International Film on November 14.
Belén marks the second feature directed by Dolores Fonzi, following her acclaimed 2023 Amazon Studios debut Blondi. As she did in that film, Fonzi also appears on screen here, portraying real-life defense lawyer Soledad Deza—an advocate who fought to prove the innocence of Julieta (Camila Plaate), a woman accused in 2014 of murdering her newborn after arriving at a hospital in San Miguel de Tucumán with severe stomach pain that was later revealed to be a miscarriage. The case ultimately helped pave the way for the legalization of abortion rights for Argentinian women in 2020.
Argentina’s legacy at the Academy Awards stretches back four decades to another powerful drama: Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story (1985), about a wealthy woman who uncovers the truth about her adopted daughter’s origins and, in doing so, confronts the human rights abuses of the military dictatorship. It won Argentina’s first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1986. The country repeated that success in 2010 with Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes, a legal thriller in which a retired investigator (Ricardo Darín) revisits a haunting unsolved case through an old photograph while grappling with a long-buried love.
Fonzi’s Belén continues that tradition of powerful, socially urgent dramas, anchored by deeply affecting performances. The film lays bare a legal system riddled with corruption—one where gender parity in leadership doesn’t necessarily guarantee justice. Much like present-day Mexico, where having a woman president does not ensure full protection of women’s rights, Argentina’s own political climate under female leadership—such as during the presidency of Cristina Kirchner—still allowed cases like Julieta’s to be mishandled or even deliberately distorted by corrupt lawyers and judges of all genders.
As Argentina’s official Oscar submission, Belén hits all the emotional, political, and cinematic notes characteristic of strong South American contenders—from The Official Story to last year’s Brazilian entry I’m Still Here (Walter Salles, 2024). Although it faces tough competition, particularly from Brazil’s The Secret Agent and its festival acclaim at Cannes (including Best Actor for Walter Moura and Best Director for Mendonça Filho), Belén’s only real obstacle may be the sensitivity of its subject matter—one that is especially charged within current U.S. political discourse.
In an interesting footnote, director-star Dolores Fonzi also finds herself competing against her former real-life partner, Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, who leads the Philippines’ first-ever International Feature submission, Magellan (Lav Díaz, 2025). The epic follows Ferdinand Magellan (García Bernal) on his ambitious quest to circumnavigate the globe, exploring the human, cultural, and political dimensions of colonial-era exploration.
Rating: 8/10