SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile is getting its first shot at an Oscar for best foreign-language film, along with global attention and a boost to its thriving film industry with the nomination of “No.” News of the film's nomination Thursday was widely celebrated by Chileans, but also had been expected by many since the movie became a surprise hit at Cannes. “No” revisits a publicity campaign that helped oust Gen. Augusto Pinochet from power after 16 years as a dictator. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Rene Saavedra, a formerly exiled advertising hotshot drawn into a 1988 referendum TV campaign who tries to persuade people to vote “No” to eight more years of Pinochet. “I had a great time doing this,” Garcia Bernal said from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “The fact that I played an exiled man is something very common in Chile because the dictatorship provoked this type of returns,” he added. The ad campaign worked in real life. Pinochet, who once compared himself to the best Roman emperors, was ousted when 55 percent of people voted “no” to continuing his rule. — AP
