'' Embrace of the Serpent '' was premiered on 15 May 2015 during the Directors ' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Art Cinema Award . The film was released in Colombia on 21 May 2015 , and worldwide over the course of the following twelve months . It has received universal acclaim from critics , who praised the cinematography and the story 's impact of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and way of life by white colonialism . It has won numerous awards , including the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival , the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture at the 2017 Riviera International Film Festival , and seven awards at the 3rd Platino Awards to recognise the best Ibero-American films of 2015 , including the Platino Award for Best Ibero-American Film . In 2016 the film was submitted as Colombia 's entry for the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards and was included among the final five nominees , becoming the first Colombian film ever to receive a nomination for an Academy Award
88th Academy Awards
88th Academy Awards
Embrace of the Serpent