Catalan culture headed for Hollywood, as 'Pa negre' is chosen for Oscars

The movie Pa negre (or, Black Bread) made history on Wednesday, when it was announced that it would become the first ever Catalan-language film to be presented to the Oscars as Spain's candidate for the category of Best Foreign Language Film. The movie, set in a Catalan valley in post-Civil War Spain, beat out competition from La voz dormida (or, The Sleeping Voice) from director Benito Zambrano and The Skin I Live In, from previous Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar.

For the director of Pa negre, Agustí Villaronga, who has already picked up Spain's National Cinematography Prize for his film, this will be his first experience of competing for an Oscar. The movie, which stars Nora Navas and child actor Francesc Colomer, was originally released in 2010, but on the back of Wednesday's news will be re-released in cinemas in Madrid and Barcelona.

"I'm happier than I ever thought I could be," says Villaronga, speaking over the phone. "It's been a complete surprise." The news was delivered to him while he was at home, where he was doing a read through with several actors of the script of Carta a Eva, a TV movie about Eva Perón that he is currently working on.

The filmmaker heard the news via text message, sent by an agent. Villaronga says he doesn't just feel happy for himself, but also thanks to the warm reception he has got from a wide range of people. "There is a special wave of support, among other reasons because the film is in Catalan."

The Spanish actors Verónica Echegui and José Coronado were tasked with opening the envelopes on Wednesday, and announcing the winner. Director Judith Colell, who is the vice president of Spain's film academy, said she was thrilled with the choice, as "another of the state languages" will be going to Hollywood as a representative of "our plurality." From Catalonia herself, Colell had a few words to say about the fact the film is in the regional language. "What we have to do is convince audiences with good films - audiences don't go to see a film because of the language it is in, but rather on the basis of whether it is any good."

The US Academy will announce the definitive candidates for each category on January 24, among which will be the Best Foreign Language Film. But the road to making that list is long and winding. The first phase sees the academy members choose nine movies, which they will have seen between October and December. Then between January 22 and 24 two special committees - one in New York and one in Los Angeles - will choose five finalists, which will then compete for the win, to be announced at the Oscars ceremony in the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles in February.

The film's producer, Isona Passola, was also at the Academy on Wednesday, and spoke about how she thought the movie would be received in Hollywood. "A post-war period is a state of mind, and there have been many such periods. In the US they had their own, and they will understand the film," she explained.

"I find it laughable that they say that there have been too many films about the Civil War already. Wars provide a lot of material for the cinema, because the great ideals of the world are fought over."

If Pa negre manages to make the final list it will be the first Spanish movie to do so since 2004, when The Sea Inside, from Alejandro Amenábar, gave the local industry its fourth Oscar, after those won by Starting Over, by José Luis Garci, Belle Époque, by Fernando Trueba, and All About my Mother, by Pedro Almodóvar.