Juan Carlos Garcia/ Reform Agency
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 | 08:42
CDMX.- The three Oscar nominations that The Triangle of Sadness holds were celebrated in a big way by the Mexican Julio Chavezmontes, its executive producer, except for one disappointment.
The story aspires to win for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay (the last two, for director Ruben Östlund), but failed to appear in the Supporting Actress (Dolly De Leon) category.
“It was a wonderful surprise (the director’s nomination). I prefer to reserve myself, the job of producer comes to me, think about contingencies, and I don’t take anything for granted. If one starts reading and says: ‘you already put it together’, no more happens.
“And what a pity that (Dolly) is not there, it would have been beautiful to see her work recognized. What she does in the film is formidable, also, also, because I think Ruben is an extraordinary director of actors. He is an extraordinary director, period , but what he does with the actors is amazing, and I think it would have been cool to see someone from the cast, recognized,” said the producer of films like Annette and Malintzin 17 in an interview.
El Triángulo de la Tristeza, which will be released in Mexico on February 16, mixes drama, comedy and parody. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year and received an eight-minute standing ovation at its premiere.
The plot shows an influencer with her partner on a luxury cruise ship, and they gradually interweave stories with other crew members, exhibiting human miseries and a distorted reality about survival.
“I hope that the media impact that the Oscar has (benefits) and I hope that people discover it. It is great for us and I hope that it will help many people to be interested in seeing it in the cinema,” Chavezmontes commented.
The also director of Memoria (2021) recalled that he met the Swedish director, writer and producer at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, when, together with Sebastián Hofmann, he went to present Shared Time.
“Ruben was on the jury and, curiously, we talked about the great influence he had (in our cinema). Being part of the jury, we thought that he might like what we did, and he also told us when we won the Best Screenplay award. Sundance. If it had ended there (the relationship), it would already have been a dream,” recalled the screenwriter and producer.
Then Chavezmontes worked as a co-producer, with Erik Hemmendorff, of the film La Isla de Bergman and professional production crystallized, for which they were invited to make El Triángulo de la Tristeza.
“There was a lot of harmony and relationship, and they invite us to be part of the team and we do it. We joined when the movie is in development. We helped consolidate the financial scheme.
“I did not go to the filming because filming begins at the beginning of 2020 and is suspended due to the pandemic. When it resumes (September), the first time you can, it was very difficult to travel, there were many contingencies, but everything went wonderfully ” , he detailed.
