Oscars: Spain Picks Oliver Laxe’s Trippy ‘Sirat’ as Best International Feature Submission

Spain has selected Oliver Laxe’s Sirat, a near-future drama about the end of the world set to a thumping techno soundtrack, as its contender for the 2026 Oscars in the best international feature category.

The drama follows a father and son who hook up with a group of itinerant ravers in the deserts of Morocco. What starts as a search for the family’s lost daughter becomes something else when the world outside — as reported in static-heavy radio broadcasts — appears to collapse, leaving the group with only themselves to confront the threatening world around them.

Laxe’s fourth film premiered in Cannes, where it was a critical breakout, and won the jury prize. In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarke called it “an energizing film — a project determined to wake us up.”

Sirat was picked from a shortlist of three finalists, which also included Carla Simón’s Romería and Deaf by Eva Libertad.