Cuba Picks Carlos Larrazabal's 'Malecón' for Oscar Race

Cuba has selected Carlos Larrazabal's "Malecón" as its official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. The announcement coincides with this year's San Sebastián International Film Festival and arrives alongside news that Movistar Plus has acquired the film's streaming rights in Spain.

The double announcement caps a festival run that has already taken in Mar del Plata, Miami and Havana. Release details for the Movistar Plus launch will be announced separately.

"Malecón" follows Elvis, who returns to Havana after 10 years in prison. Reunited with his childhood sweetheart and pulled into the city's criminal underworld, he must decide how far he will go to finance his escape — and what he is willing to leave behind.

Larrazabal shot the film entirely in Cuba and co-wrote the script with Cuban screenwriter Fabián Suárez. The screenplay was developed through the Sundance Collab program. The cast is all-Cuban, led by César Domínguez, Camila Rodhes, Omar Rolando and Yordanka Ariosa, working with a Cuban production team.

"We wanted to make a film with the ambition to travel the world and the intimacy of a story told from within," said producer Inti Herrera of Cuban production company i4films. "Our Cuban cast and crew brought their own memories, humor and daily realities to the screen. Seeing the film connect with audiences in both Havana and the rest of the world has been especially meaningful: wherever our lives have taken us, there is something in these friendships and difficult choices that we recognize."

The co-producers include Jorge Perugorría, the acclaimed Cuban actor known for "Fresa y Chocolate," and seasoned producer Flavio Florencio. Their involvement gives the project a bridge between two generations of Cuban cinema: Perugorría starred in the 1993 landmark that remains the island's most internationally recognized film, and "Malecón" now carries the country's Oscar hopes into a category Cuba has never won.

Larrazabal described the film's origins in personal terms. "'Malecón' was born from a profound connection with Cuba and from the need to tell a story about what it means to stay, to leave and to imagine a different future," he said.

That theme — the tension between staying and leaving — runs through the film's premise and, the filmmakers suggest, through its reception. Herrera noted that audiences in Havana and abroad have recognized something of their own lives in the story's friendships and difficult choices.

The San Sebastián timing gives "Malecón" a high-profile platform as the international feature race begins to take shape. With the Movistar Plus deal secured for Spain and its festival credentials spanning three countries, the film now moves into the next phase: qualifying votes from the Academy's international branch, and a Spanish streaming debut whose date audiences will learn in a separate announcement.