Arturo Montenegro’s fourth film depicts a family dealing with a transgender father coming out

Panama is the first Latin American country to announce its candidate for the Oscars’ international feature film category: Arturo Montenegro’s family drama Everybody Changes.

Starring Gaby Gnazzo, Andrea Pérez Meana, Susan Elizabeth Castillo, Mónica Lola Díaz and José Manuel Arispe and shot in Panama and Thailand, the pic tells the story of Federico and Carol, parents of three children who have a perfect home, but everything is challenged when they must adapt to Federico’s coming out as a transgender woman.

“The film deals with minorities, particularly one that is very attacked and demands human and civil rights,” Montenegro told the newspaper La Prensa. “As a society, we need to be more respectful and inclusive, but also when people go see this film they need to know they are going to see the story of a family’s love for each other,” he added.

Everybody Changes is Panama’s sixth Academy Award submission since the country’s first Oscar bid, Abner Benaim’s Invasión, in 2014.