what you are going to do. It's a time of terrible indecision." Reception Cría Cuervos was shot in the summer of 1975, as Spanish leader Francisco Franco lay dying, and premiered in Madrid's Conde Duque Theatre, on January 26, 1976. Highly acclaimed, it received the Cannes Film Festival's Special Jury Prize Award. The film became director Carlos Saura and producer Elías Querejeta's most commercially successful film up to that point, going on to become the sixth largest grossing Spanish film of 1976. The picture made a similar strong showing in foreign markets, including the United States, where it solidified Saura's reputation as Spain's best internationally known director of the 1970s. Today the film is considered a political and psychological masterpiece and a classic of Spanish cinema. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. It was, however, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by the U.S. National Board of Review. Music The film prominently features the pop song "Porque te vas" by Jeanette, an English-born singer, singing in Spanish, whose accented voice reminds Ana of her mother, as played by Geraldine Chaplin, who speaks Spanish with her English-accented voice. Despite an infectious rhythm the song has sad and poignant lyrics. The song expresses the fact that Ana has no understanding of death, only of absence. DVD release Cría Cuervos was released on DVD on August 14, 2007, in a two-disc special edition as part of the Criterion Collection. The film was released on Blu-ray in a Dual Format Edition on May 27, 2013, by the BFI. See also List of submissions to the 49th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of Spanish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film References Bibliography D'Lugo, Marvin, The Films of Carlos Saura, Princeton University Press, 1991, Schwartz, Ronald, The Great Spanish Films: 1950 - 1990, Scarecrow Press, London, 1991, Stone, Rob, Spanish Cinema, Pearson Education, 2002, External links Cría cuervos . . . : The Past Is Not Past an essay by Paul Julian Smith at the Criterion Collection Film Reference Strictly Film School DVDLaser.com Film Affinity (Spanish) Cinergia (Spanish) 1976 drama films 1976 films Films directed by Carlos Saura Films shot in Madrid Madrid in fiction 1970s coming-of-age drama films Spanish coming-of-age drama films 1970s Spanish-language films Films produced by