Kill the Jockey () is a 2024 surrealist neo-noir psychological drama film co-written and directed by Luis Ortega, starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart alongside Úrsula Corberó and Daniel Giménez Cacho.
The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion and the Queer Lion. The film was selected as the Argentine entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.
Premise Jockeys Abril and Remo race for a powerful mobster named Sirena until Remo accidentally kills a valuable race horse. Abril must find Remo in Buenos Aires and bring him to safety before Sirena tracks him down.
Cast
Release In July 2024, Kill the Jockey was announced as a main competition entry at that year's Venice International Film Festival. The film was also selected for screenings in the Centrepiece section of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and in the Horizontes Latinos section of the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival.
The film has been selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 under the World Cinema section.
Latin American distribution rights for Kill the Jockey were acquired by Star Distribution in August 2024. The film debuted theatrically in Argentina on 26 September 2024, followed by a streaming release in Latin America on Disney+. It is scheduled to be released theatrically in Spain by Caramel Films on 30 May 2025. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on 2 July 2025.
Reception Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter said the film, described as an "equestrian-themed psychological thriller-comedy-whatsit," was "heavy on style, light on character".
Wendy Ide of ScreenDaily declared the film "a playful, shape-shifting, questioning journey that refuses to be neatly pinned down".
Guillermo Courau of La Nación rated the film 4 out of 5 stars ('very good'), writing that it is a film in which Ortega "manages to merge concerns and aesthetics in an almost perfect way".
The Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences chose the film as Argentina's submission to the Academy Award for Best International Film and to the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film.
Accolades Award Ceremony date Category Recipient(s) Result Ref. Venice International Film Festival 7 September 2024 Golden Lion Kill the Jockey Premio CinemaSarà Edipo Re Award San Sebastián International Film Festival 28 September 2024 Horizontes Latinos Award Forqué Awards 14 December 2024 Best Latin-American Film Goya Awards 8 February 2025 Best Ibero-American Film Platino Awards 27 April 2025 Best Ibero-American Film Best Director Luis Ortega Best Screenplay Luis Ortega, Rodolfo Palacios, Fabián Casas Best Actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart Best Actress Úrsula Corberó Best Supporting Actor Daniel Fanego Best Film Editing Rosario Suárez, Yibrán Asaud Best Art Direction Germán Naglieri, Julia Freid Best Sound Guido Berenblum Golden Trailer Awards 29 May 2025 Best Foreign Poster Infinity Hill / Fable Most Original Poster Sur Awards 23 July 2025 Best Film Kill the Jockey Best Director Luis Ortega Best Actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart Best Supporting Actor Daniel Fanego Best Art Direction Julia Freid, Germán Naglieri Best Costume Design Beatriz Di Benedetto Best Cinematography Timo Salminen Best Original Screenplay Fabián Casas, Luis Ortega, Rodolfo Palacios Best Makeup Ángela Garacija Best Original Score Sune Rose Wagner Best Sound Guido Berenblum, Claus Lynge, Javier Umpiérrez Ariel Awards 20 September 2025 Best Ibero-American Film Kill the Jockey
See also List of Argentine films of 2024 List of Spanish films of 2025 List of submissions to the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film List of Argentine submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film List of films about horse racing List of films about horses
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