Galician filmmaker **Oliver Laxe**, whose film *Sirat* has been nominated for the **2026 Oscars** in the **Best International Feature Film** and **Best Sound** categories, said he feels "**very calm**" despite competing against major productions with much larger budgets and crews. For Laxe, his presence in the race for the statuettes already represents "**a way of making Spanish cinema visible**" and a cause for celebration even before the ceremony.
“We are competing with dinosaurs”
During a press conference at the Telefónica Building in Madrid, Laxe used a metaphor to describe the context of Sirat: “Have you seen the films we’re competing with? Do you know the budget those films have and the number of people who work on them? We are competing with those dinosaurs, but you already know that small mammals survive dinosaurs,” he stated, emphasizing that his film “has nothing to lose”.
A Shared Success
Beyond her own modesty, Laxe extended the credit for the nominations to Spanish cinema as a whole: she highlighted the "maturity" and diversity of a landscape that is being recognized abroad, and expressed gratitude for the displays of affection received since her first major award at Cannes.
"This is not just a success for us, but for everyone who makes films in Spain"
In addition to its double nomination, *Sirat* reaches another milestone at the Oscars by featuring a sound team—composed entirely of women—as one of the first of its kind to compete in the respective technical category, reinforcing the film's impact beyond its main narrative.