Oscar Shortlist Title ‘Tula’ Provides Wry Study of Teenage Insecurity, Sexual Illiteracy
variety.comHolly Jones Drawing from personal experience and driven by the lack of real talk around sexuality, Spanish author Beatriz de Silva dove into filmmaking with her debut “Tula,” which bowed globally at the Houston International Film Festival, winning Gold for Best Comedy Short.
The project has since garnered large festival buzz, stacked awards and was among contenders placed on the Oscars shortlist from 200 entries.
Shot in the Basque Country and taking advantage of the region’s robust creative initiatives, the film offers a humorous take on sexual miseducation and those that step in to enlighten our adolescence when parents, teachers and peers fail miserably. “I guess it’s a personal decision what kind of feelings you want to convey to the public.
I always opt for optimism and hope,” Silva told Variety when discussing the tone of her script. “Comedy is born from pain. Good comic conflict is sustained by good tragic conflict.” Produced by director Maite Ruiz de Austri’s Extrapictures alongside CSC Films, the 12-minute narrative takes place in a private school’s restroom, a near-sacred and intimate space for teenagers, where the headmistress’s daughter (Eider González) is stewing in fear and self-doubt.
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