Paolo Sorrentino's E' Stata la Mano Di Dio on Tuesday got an Oscar nod as best international film.
The bittersweet semi-autobiographical coming of age tale, It Was The Hand Of God, against the backdrop of Diego Maradona's Naples, will go up against four others on March 27.
Naples-born director Sorrentino won the 2013 best foreign film Oscar for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty).
"I'm very, very happy for this nomination," said Sorrentino. "For me it is already a great victory. It is a thrill, because it is a prestigious recognition for the themes of the film, which are things I believe in: irony, freedom, tolerance, pain, carefreeness, determination, the future, Naples and my mother.
"In order to get here, it took huge team work. Therefore, I must thank Netflix, Fremantle, The Apartment, the extraordinary actors and an unforgettable crew.
"And then my children and my wife, who love me in the best way, never taking me seriously".
Sorrentino's film will be up against: Drive My Car by Japan's Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Flee by Denmark's Jonas Poher Rasmussen, which also got an animation nod; Lunana: A Yak In the Classroom by Pawo Choyning Dorji of Bhutan; and The Worst Person In The World by Norway's Joachim Trier.
All have garnered festival prizes like E' Stata la Mano Di Dio, which got second prize at Venice and also saw young actor Filippo Scotti get the Venice best actor prize for his portrayal of the young Sorrentino character.
Italy's Massimo Cantini Parrini was also nominated for an Oscar Tuesday for the costumes of Cyrano, the academy said.
Cyrano is a musical romantic drama film directed by Joe Wright and with a screenplay by Erica Schmidt, based on Schmidt's 2018 stage musical of the same name, itself based on the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac.
The film stars Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Ben Mendelsohn.
And Italy's Enrico Casarosa has been nominated for an Oscar for Disney's animated film Luca, the academy said Tuesday.
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