"lo que le pasó a santiago" was generally well received by critics and audiences. although it doesn't have an official rating on rotten tomatoes because of the lack of certified critics reviews, it still holds an approval rating of 81% among the audience based on 417 ratings. in 1990, the film was nominated for the best foreign language film at the 62nd academy awards. according to morales, it was associate producer, pedro muñiz, who prompted them to submit the film for consideration. before submitting it to the academy, they had to budget the addition of english subtitles, which they did in "record time" and the film was successfully submitted before the january 5, 1990 deadline. however, it lost to giuseppe tornatore's "cinema paradiso".