Maya O’Rourke in 'The Meltdown.' Courtesy of Les Films du Losange/Ronda Cine Manuela Martelli’s period mystery The Meltdown has been selected to represent Chile in the best international feature film category at the 2027 Oscars, which will mark the 99th Academy Awards. The Chilean Film Academy unveiled the decision on Wednesday.
The film, the sophomore feature of actress-turned-writer/director Martelli (God Will Not Help, The Future), will be released in Chile on Sept. 3. Kino Lorber acquired the U.S. distribution rights and is planning a theatrical release in the U.S. in early 2027, followed by a digital, educational, and home video release.
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The Meltdown had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where The Hollywood Reporter featured it as a hidden gem.
The follow-up to Martelli’s General Augusto Pinochet-era political thriller Chile ‘76 stars Maya O’Rourke, Maia Rae Domagala, Saskia Rosendahl, Jakub Gierszal, Paulina Urrutia and Mauricio Pešutić. Set in 1992, just two years after the end of Pinochet’s regime and amid Chile’s “economic miracle,” nine-year-old Inés is staying at her grandparents’ Andean ski resort while her parents attend a trade conference in Seville. She befriends Hanna, a German teenager training to be a competitive skier while rebelling against the strictures of her regimented life. When Hanna vanishes without a trace and her mother enlists Inés’ help as a translator, the search for the missing teenager raises questions and exposes hidden truths that test the young girl’s loyalties and echo her country’s dark history.”
The Meltdown was produced by Alejandra García for Ronda Cine in Chile, Alex C. Lo for Cinema Inutile in the U.S. and Andrés Wood for Wood Producciones in Chile. It was co-produced by María Zamora for Elastica Films in Spain, Julio Chavezmontes for Piano in Mexico and Pablo Díaz for Fundación Río in Chile.
“My main interest is going back to history through characters and through their emotions and experiences, instead of addressing history with a capital H,” Martelli shared with THR earlier this year. She recalls being 9 years old in 1992, a time that was “permeated by this transition in Chile, which was a very weird and complex moment. For me, it was interesting to overlap the transition of a kid and the transition of a country and the world as well.”
THR‘s review of The Meltdown noted that “truth is a rare commodity in a slow-burn mystery,” concluding: “Confused connections, parental proxies, colonial histories — Martelli interweaves these narrative strands with skill and artistry. Through the mystery of one person’s fate, a young hero awakens to certain ground rules and discovers a haunted place.”
Chile has won the best international feature Oscar once before, for Sebastián Lelio’s 2017 feature A Fantastic Woman. Pablo Larraín’s 2012 feature No also got nominated in the category.
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