Football star Lionel Messi posted an Instagram shout-out praising “Argentina 1985” to his 432 million followers early this morning, three weeks before the nail-biting wait to find out whether the critically acclaimed film on the trial of the junta wins the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

“What a great film ‘Argentina, 1985’ is, starring Ricardo Darín and nominated to the OSCARS,” he wrote. “Let’s go for the third!” 

He was referring to the fact that a win for the film would be the third time an Argentine film had won the award, while December’s World Cup victory was the country’s third victory in the football tournament.

Messi shared his support for director Santiago Mitre’s film the morning after the BAFTA ceremony, where it lost the Film Not in the English Language prize to Germany’s “All quiet on the western front”. 
The Oscars will be held on March 12, and “Argentina, 1985” is once again up against “All quiet on the western front”. Other movies up for the accolade include EO (Poland), Close (Belgium), and The Quiet Girl (Ireland).

Argentina, 1985, Santiago Mitre’s film about the prosecution team behind Argentina’s landmark Trial of the Juntas, has been nominated for an Oscar in the International Feature Film category, the Academy announced today. 

This is the seventh nomination for Argentina in that category. The last, co-produced by Kuschevatsky, was Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales at the 87th Oscars in 2015, where it lost to Poland’s entry Ida. 

Argentina, 1985, recently won the Golden Globe for best picture in non-English language. However, though it was short-listed, it did not win the British BAFTA award last night. 

An Amazon Studios-backed co-production starring Ricardo Darin and Peter Lanzani as real-life prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, Argentina, 1985 focuses on the efforts of Strassera’s young team of legal aids to try the leaders of the military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983 for massive kidnapping, torture and homicide. The trial was the first time in history that a civilian court brought the leaders of a military dictatorship to justice. 

Back when the nominations were announced, Producer Axel Kuschevatzky told the Herald that one strength of Argentina, 1985 is the way it connects with audiences. “In my experience, this is an important element for Academy members. And I believe that one thing that favors the film is that degree of emotional connection. I’m not saying the other ones don’t have that, but this one clearly does,” he adds.   

The other nominees in the International Feature Film category are EO (Poland), All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany), Close (Belgium), and The Quiet Girl (Ireland).

The 95th Oscars will be held on March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and will be televised live worldwide.