Fernando Trueba’s heist drama The Dancer And The Thief has beaten off competition from Daniel Sanchez Arevalo’s Gordos and Isabel Coixet’s Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo to be selected as Spain’s entry for the foreign-language Acadmey Awards.

The Dancer And The Thief was a world premiere out of competition at San Sebastian last week where it received a positive response from the critics and public. “I am very grateful to the people who voted, but it is a long road and so I prefer not to think about it,” Trueba told ScreenDaily.

The film is about a notorious safebreaker, Nicolas Vergara Grey, played by Ricardo Darin, who is released from prison and determined to re-united with his wife and child, but is instead forced to help a young, enthusiastic thief, Angel Santiago (Abel Ayala), steal money from one of General Pinochet’s henchmen.

Trueba won the foreign language Oscar in 1994 for his classic Franco era romantic drama, Bellle Epoque.

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