Arvelo’s “The Liberator,” Starring Edgar Ramirez, Selected as Venezuela’s Oscar Submission for Foreign Language Film

Alberto Arvelo is one step closer to a possible Oscar nomination…

The Venezuelan filmmaker’s latest project The Liberator has been selected to be the country’s submission to the Foreign Language Film category for the next Academy Awards, according to the Venezuelan paper Ultimas Noticias.

The Liberator

The paper reports that a selection of Venezuelan film industry professionals voted on Arvelo’s film earlier this week.

The voting was reportedly divided between The Liberator and Mariana Rondon’s indie drama Bad Hair, winner of the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year.

An absolute rarity for local standards in terms of production value, The Liberator is a $50 million co-production between Spain and Venezuela about military and political leader Simon Bolivar, who commanded an army that freed a great part of the region from Spanish colonialism back in the 19th century, and is regarded as a forefather of South America, together with Argentine Jose de San Martin.

The epic period piece stars Venezuela’s most high profile international actor Edgar Ramírez (Carlos, Zero Dark Thirty) as Bolivar, with a score by the L. A. Philharmonic’s music director Gustavo Dudamel, and a script by Timothy J. Sexton, who co-wrote Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men.

The film’s unusually international crew also features Spanish cinematographer Xavi Gimenez (The MachinistAgora), production designer Paul D. Austerberry (Twilight Saga: Eclipse), costume designer Sonia Grande (Midnight in Paris) and editor Tariq Anwar (American Beauty, The King’s Speech).

The Liberator opened in Venezuela on July 24, selling more than 500,000 tickets to date.

The film is scheduled for US release on October 3.

Valverde to Star in the Action-Thriller “400 Boys”

Maria Valverde will be participating in the ultimate battle between the young and the old…

The 25-year-old Spanish actress has signed on to star in British writer/director Alastair Paton’s action movie 400 Boys, which is billed as a fast-paced thriller set amid a youth subculture.

Maria Valverde

Paton’s project is described as “a race against time where the old are trapped in worn out bodies and the young fear life more than death and a battle between old and young commences.”

Valverde—who won Spain’s Goya Award for Best Actress as a teenager for her work in La flaqueza del bolchevique—forms part of the eclectic international cast that includes Canadian actress Jodelle Ferland (Twilight Saga:  Eclipse, The Cabin in the Woods, Tideland), Elliot Knight (Sinbad), Charlie Rowe (Neverland), German actress Chiara von Galli and Lucy Boynton (Miss Potter, Sense & Sensibility), as well as former French international World Cup-winning soccer star-turned-actor Frank Lebeouf (Taking Sides), Chinese actress BingBing Li (Resident Evil:  Retribution) and pop sensation Karena NG.

400 Boys scheduled to begin shooting in October. The movie, which is set for an eight-week shoot, will film on location in Hong Kong, Macau and at Guangzhou’s ACE Studios in China.

The title has already secured a 6,500 screen release in China through Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution and a number of key international territories are sold including Spain, Latin America, France and French-speaking Canada, Australia, Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux and Eastern Europe.

We loved the director’s vision and the material was fresh, pacy and exciting,” said China Hollywood Film & Television Entertainment‘s Ricky Tong. “This movie is for the youth audience worldwide.”

Pegasus Motion Pictures Distribution’s Raymond Wong added: “It’s an original story, a great script, is fast, has a young cast and with a 16-30 target audience, it’s the perfect film for us to release in China.”