Superclásico on Oscar shortlist

OSCAR SHORTLIST. Danish divorce comedy "Superclásico" made it to the last round in the nominations run for Best Foreign Language award. Final list will be announced on 24 January.

The buzz that has been building for Ole Christian Madsen's comedy "Superclásico" since its Toronto premiere was confirmed today as the film made it to the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language film.

The film follows a frustrated, middle-aged wine dealer travelling to Buenos Aires to reconcile with his feisty wife who has fallen for a hot Argentinian soccer player. Two of Denmark's leading actors, Anders W. Berthelsen and Paprika Steen, feature as the couple that embody all the funny and absurd aspects that director Ole Christian Madsen considers an inevitable part of divorce.

"The problem with our sorrow over love, divorce and loss is that we tend to make a claustrophobic prison for ourselves. This film tries to open that up, put it into a bigger picture and view it in a highly cheerful light. It deals with very serious matters, but it insists on seeing the positive emotions of the situation," Madsen says. Read interview

"Superclásico" is produced by Lars Bredo Rahbek and Signe Leick Jensen for Nimbus Film. International sales are handled by The Match Factory. 

The Oscar committee will be announcing the final nomination list on 24 January, and the 84th Academy Awards will be held on 26 February. Winner of 2011's foreign language Oscar was Danish director Susanne Bier for "In a Better World".  

About Ole Christian Madsen

"Superclásico" succeeds the director's 2008 blockbuster "Flame & Citron", a tense WW2 drama starring Mads Mikkelsen and Thure Lindhardt.

The director himself groups "Superclásico" with his two previous films about love and break-ups, "Kira's Reason – A Love Story" and "Prague", only this time Ole Christian Madsen lends a comic angle to the matter.

Ole Christian Madsen graduated in direction from the National Film School of Denmark, 1993. Madsen was part of the so-called golden cohort at the National Film School in the early nineties, which included Thomas Vinterberg and Per Fly.