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Belgium Selects ‘The Ardennes’ For Foreign Language Oscar Race; Korea Taps Spy Film ‘Age Of Shadows’

Belgium has tapped Robin Pront’s The Ardennes as it selection for this year’s Oscar Foreign Language race. The pic, which premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, was acquired by Film Movement earlier this year and a fall U.S. debut is in the works. The movie, from Belgium’s 2012 Foreign Language Oscar nominee Bullhead producer Savage Films, kicks off when a brutal robbery goes hopelessly wrong. Dave, one of the two robbers, manages to run off leaving his brother Kenneth behind. Four years later, Kenneth is released from prison and much has changed. Dave has his life back on track and is trying to help Kenneth wherever possible, but is witnessing how his highly-strung brother tries to win back his ex-girlfriend Sylvie. Veerle Baetens, Jeroen Perceval and Kevin Janssens star.

South Korea has selected Kim Jee-woon’s spy movie The Age Of Shadows to represent the country in this year’s Foreign Language Oscar competition. The news comes as the movie preps for its world premiere September 3 out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. It has not been released in Korea, a territory that has seen several local titles score at the box office this summer. Kim’s historical action-thriller centes on a Korean independence group that fights against Japanese oppressors during the Colonial Era which stretched from 1910-1945. Song Kang-ho, Gong Yoo and Han Ji-min star. Warner Bros has the film locally. “The film scored high in multiple evaluation factors, such as aesthetic achievement, recognition of the director and cast, as well as global distribution and marketing potential,” the Korean Film Council said in its press release this morning.

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