The Argentine Film Academy selected Rodrigo Moreno’s heist film The Delinquents as the country’s bid for an Oscar in the International Feature Film category. 

The Academy announced the results of the vote done via streaming on their Instagram account last Monday.

Premiered at the Un Certain Regard selection of the Cannes Film Festival last May, The Delinquents is a comedy/thriller about two bank clerks — Morán, played by Daniel Elías and Ramón, played by Esteban Bigliard — who steal money from the vault as part of a plan to free themselves from their monotonous urban lives and the obligations of everyday work. 

Argentina is the only Latin American country that has won the Oscar’s International Film category twice, with The Official Story (1986) and The Secret in Their Eyes (2010). Last year, Argentina, 1985  —  Santiago Mitre’s film about the landmark ‘Trial of the Juntas’ — was nominated for Best International Feature but lost to Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front.

“It’s so beautiful to be recognized by your colleagues, especially for a film that is somewhat different to what the Academy usually chooses, so happiness is twofold,” said Moreno to movie and film industry news site Otroscines. 

“I feel there was quite a degree of boldness in my colleagues’ decision to vote for The Delinquents,” he added.

Produced by Wanka Cine with co-producers Rizoma Films, Jaque Content (Mexico), Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg), Jirafa (Chile) and Sancho & Punta (Brazil), The Delinquents will premiere in Argentine theaters on October 26 and will later be released via streaming by MUBI.

Moreno’s seventh film will play at the New York Film Festival on October 11 and 12 and will later be released in US theaters on Wednesday, October 18.