MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Movies from Argentina, Venezuela make Oscar shortlist

Wild Tales of Argentina and Venezuela's make first cut in the race for Foreign Language Oscar award.

Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes) and The Liberator (Libertador) will have to go through yet another selection phase January 15 before earning full nomination to vie for the most-wanted statuette

 Wild Tales ('Relatos Salvajes') of Argentina and The Liberator ('Libertador') of Venezuela were among the eight entries to make the short list for Hollywood's 2015 Best Film in a Foreign Language Award, it was announced Friday.

A total 83 applications were received by the October 1 deadline, with four countries submitting films for the first time; Mauritania, Panama, Kosovo and Malta. Uruguay's Mr. Kaplan ('Mr. Kaplan'), Chile's To Kill A Man ('Matar a un hombre') and The Way He Looks ('Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho') of Brazil were among those which failed to make the cut. The list will again be narrowed down in January 15, that time to only five entries, the final nominees for the February 22 ceremony.

The other are Tangerines (Estonia), Corn Island (Georgia), Accused (The Netherlands), Ida (Poland), Force Majeure (Sweden) and Leviathan (Russia).

The Liberator is a 2013 Spanish-Venezuelan historical drama film directed by Alberto Arvelo, starring Edgar Ramirez as Simón Bolívar. It was first screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and released for theatres in Venezuela in July 2014.

Wild Tales is a 2014 Argentine black-comedy drama film written and directed by Damian Szifron, starring Ricardo Darin, Oscar Martinez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Erica Rivas, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg and Dario Grandinetti. It was co-produced by Agustín and Pedro Almodovar and the musical score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.