Sandino a worth Oscar contender

Although she is considered an underdog, Colombian actress Catalina Sandino Moreno could make Oscar history Sunday night if she receives the award for best actress. She would become the first actress to win the award for a Spanish-speaking role — and certainly one of the few to win any Oscar for a movie debut.
 
Sandino, a native of Bogotá, Colombia, plays the leading role in "Maria Full of Grace," known as María, llena eres de gracia in Spanish-speaking countries. (Image from movie copyright 2004 HBO Films.) The film, written and directed by Joshua Marston and partly filmed in Colombia and Ecuador, tells the story of a 17-year-old pregnant Colombian girl who needs some quick cash and becomes una mula, a person who smuggles drugs into the United States by swallowing (hopefully) digestion-proof capsules.
 
It doesn't take much watching this film to understand how the young actress, starring in her first movie, found herself nominated for the top acting prize. Sandino isn't some Hollywood starlet trying to come across like a poor person; she comes across as totally authentic.
 
Appearing in nearly every frame of the film, she seems to be a real human being struggling with an existence that is all too common in the Third World. Unlike the two-dimensional characters featured in all too many films, María is a complex figure, both afraid and confident, both wise and naive. Sandino plays all the facets of Marí's personality brilliantly and is deserving as any of the contenders.
 
This film, by the way, has at least one particularly interesting facet for Spanish students. Unless you're very new to the language, you'll quickly notice one key distinction of Colombian Spanish. Read the review...