Pedro Almodovar's "Julieta" has been selected to represent Spain at the Academy Awards. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and later went to screen at the Sydney and Jerusalem Film Festivals. Continuing its awards path, the film is slated for the Toronto and New York Film Festivals where it will continue to garner buzz.

"Julieta" marks Almodovar's 20th film and also the fifth time Spain submits a film by Almodovar to represent the country. His previous submissions "Volver" went on to get nominated for Best Actress and not Best Foreign Language Film while in 1999 "All About My Mother Went" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. Almodovar was also nominated for "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." The director's history with the Academy extends outside the Foreign Language category as the filmmaker won Best Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director for his film "Talk to Her." "Julieta" is a likely contender especially with Sony Pictures Classics backing the and movie.

Additionally Spain has not been nominated since 2004 when it won for "The Sea Inside." The country has been nominated nineteen times and has won four times. The country has the third most wins behind Italy and France and is tied with Japan. It also holds the third most nominations behind France and Italy. The last time Spain came close to a nomination was in 2010 when "Even the Rain" made the January shortlist.

Last year the country submitted "Loreak," the first film in Basque to represent Spain. It was also the first Basque film to be nominated for the Goya award and was also released by Music Box Films.

"Julieta" is among the strongest contenders this year but first it must compete against an array of critically acclaimed films including Venezuela's "From Afar", Bosnia and Herzegovina's "Death in Sarajevo", Iraq's "El Clasico and Germany's "Toni Erdmann."

In recent years the Academy has awarded "Son of Saul," "Ida," "The Great Beauty," and "A Separation" the best foreign language film of the year.

The deadline to submit for the foreign language category is Oct. 3. On Jan. 17 the Academy will announce the nine finalists from among the eligible films and on Jan. 24 nominations will be announced. The winner will be announced at the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 26, 2017.

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