‘Blancanieves’ picked as Spanish candidate for Academy Awards

The Bilbao-born director Pablo Berger said he was “floating” on Thursday, after finding out that his black-and-white version of the classic fairytale Snow White, Blancanieves, had been chosen by the Spanish Cinema Academy as their nomination for the long list of the Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars.

The movie — which stars Maribel Verdú, Macarena García and Daniel Giménez Cacho, and is out in Spanish cinemas on Friday — beat out competition from cop drama Grupo 7, directed by Alberto Rodríguez, and The Artist and the Model, directed by Fernando Trueba (see main story, left).

“As you can see, I can’t stop laughing,” Berger said on Thursday. “We are all happy, really happy.”