Welsh film on Academy Award list

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Welsh film Hope Eternal, by director Karl Francis, has been submitted for consideration for the foreign language Oscar at next year's Academy Awards.

The drama is one of a record 67 films entered in the category.

And it is the first time Jordan has entered the competition, submitting Amin Matalqa's Captain Abu Raed.

Italy's Gomorrah, a expose about the mafia based on a best-selling book by Roberto Saviano, is the early favourite to win the honour.

The 2009 Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on 22 February 2009.

Ceremony

Hope Eternal was shot mostly in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Wales, and is a love story between Welsh doctor Evan (Richard Harrington), and Madagascan Aids nurse Hope (Christine Rochat Genoud).

It will be up against 66 other films from Afghanistan to Venezuela, which are all vying to make it onto the Oscar nominations list.

Five films will get a nomination, with the winner announced at the Oscars ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood.

The last time Britain received a foreign language nomination was in 2000 with Solomon and Gaenor, a romantic drama starring Ioan Gruffudd and Nia Roberts, shot largely in Yiddish and Welsh.