Chile chose a young voice telling a modern family story as its 2026 international Oscar submission, namely The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. The feature debut of writer-director Diego Céspedes, 30, explores questions of love, myths, discrimination, and community, inspired by the queer filmmaker’s experiences with fear, hatred and violence.

After world premiering in Cannes‘ Un Certain Regard section, the genre-bending HIV allegory traveled the festival circuit, including stops at Toronto, the AFI Fest and San Sebastián, where it was honored as the best Latin American film.

Starring Tamara Cortés, who portrays Lidia, Matías Catalán, as the titular Flamingo, and Paula Dinamarca, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo tells the story of Lidia, 12, who grows up in a loving queer family in a small mining town in the Chilean desert. As an unknown disease begins to spread, gay men are accused of transmitting it through their gaze. As the only girl in the community, Lidia sets out in search of the truth.

“It’s not just a queer film,” Céspedes tells THR. “It is a universal film that talks about tenderness and family, and about how people who are different try to look for families in order to look for this tenderness. I hope that when you’re watching the film, you forget that these people are queer.”

Adds the young creative: “I strongly support some festivals that are queer because they [cater to our] community. But in other festivals, I don’t support films being separated into [queer and other films]. We’re all the same. And we’re all creating characters that we want you to feel for.”

Céspedes feels that our world needs a film showing that love and tenderness are the answer. “I am very connected to and feel bad about what is happening in the world right now,” he said. “Like the genocide in Gaza, the far-right rising, the constant attacks on minorities, the increasing hate everywhere, people fighting all the time. And the truth is that almost everyone is just looking at their phones [and social media] and taking a position, but they are not actually connecting with people. When you connect with people, you realize that you are not the only human being alive.”

Diego Céspedes

The story of Gaze of the Flamingo is inspired by the writer-director’s own life experience growing up in the suburbs of Chile’s capital, Santiago, where his family rented a little hair salon and hired gay hairdressers. “When I was a kid, I always heard a lot of stuff about AIDS, because all the gay men died of AIDS,” Céspedes recalls. “I always heard these stories, these terrifying stories. My mother had such a big prejudice about it, and I can understand because she was friends with a lot of them, and then all of them died in a horrible way. … So it was very natural to do this film.” And characters in the film are inspired by family members and friends in the community.

Produced by Quijote Films in Chile, Les Valseurs in France, Weydemann Bros. in Germany, Irusoin in Spain and Wrong Men in Belgium, Charades is handling sales on the modern western. Among other deals, arthouse streamer Mubi acquired The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo for the U.K., Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, India, as well as first window SVOD rights in North America, with Altered Innocence handling theatrical and all other domestic rights.

The young auteur is ready to bring more stories to the screen. “I want to do a second film, and I already have an idea, but I just need to put it all together,” Céspedes tells THR. “I’m really motivated, and I don’t want to stop.”

But for now, he has been busy traveling with The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. “We have been trying to take the cast to festivals, and we always hear someone crying during the movie,” he shares. “And we get a very warm reception. It’s like an embrace. It’s a very different way of doing cinema, having such a close relation with the audience that I have never experienced before.”

Concludes the Chilean filmmaker: “I think that the movie is making people reflect, feel deep emotions and connect with the rest of the community and with the rest of society. Creating that connection feels amazing.”