“I’m on Jupiter,” director Sebastian Lelio said in March minutes after winning a best foreign-language film Oscar, Chile’s first-ever, for “A Fantastic Woman.”

Two months later, Lelio was back to earth, doing press for the U.S. premiere of “Disobedience” at the Tribeca Film Festival. The Oscar effect, however, continued to play out for Lelio, producers Pablo and Juan de Dios Larrain at Chile’s Fabula, and the Chilean industry at large.

The Academy Award continues to deliver a powerful lift to Chile’s entertainment industry — especially for independent filmmakers and an international film industry.

“The main change has been with amount of attention paid to anything that the team which made ‘A Fantastic Woman’ is now doing,” says Lelio, adding: “This interest could make it slightly easier to make things happen,” whether financing or other forms of project implementation.

The win for “A Fantastic Woman” may have...