“Sirat” was voted best film of the year by the American magazine “The New Yorker” in the annual ranking established by its film critics. Concretely, it is Justin Chang who, individually, placed Oliver Laxe’s film in first place in his 2025 ranking, which he describes as a “visually and sonically overwhelming survival thriller”.
It is one more feat that the Galician adds to the race for the Oscars, in which his film is the Spanish candidate in the category of best international film, which will receive the first cut in more than a week. On December 16, it will be revealed which 15 films still have the possibility of finally being among the five in the running for the golden statuette.
Chang, in his annual list, describes the journey of the main character, played by Sergi López, as “one of unfathomable shock and tragedy.”
“But the film is not a cheap cynical or nihilistic experiment; its gravest horrors come from a complex understanding of how human compassion persists in a universe that is fundamentally opposed to its existence,” he believes.
This recognition comes the same week that the film was nominated for Best International Film at the Independent Spirit Awards, for independent film. At the national level, while waiting for the Goya nominations, the film comes first – just behind “Los Domingos” – in the Feroz Awards nominations, with seven nominations (like “Maspalomas”).
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