Paolo Virzì's Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) was named Wednesday as Italy's candidate for the best foreign film Oscar at next year's Academy Awards.
Virzì will know if his movie has made the Academy's shortlist for the award on January 15. The film is aiming to repeat the success of Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty this year.
Human Capital, dubbed a "neo-noir", was named best film at this year's David di Donatello awards, the Italian Oscars, splitting top honours with The Great Beauty.
Based on the American novel Human Capital by Stephen Amidon, the film relocates from Connecticut to the affluent Brianza area north of Milan and intertwines the destinies of two families after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep on the night before Christmas Eve.
Top Italian actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio plays a lead role, as does Carla Bruni's elder actor sister, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who won the David for best actress.
The film garnered 7.5 points on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) while on Rotten Tomatoes Elise Nakhnikian of Slant Magazine called it a "cleverly told mystery" Human Capital competed at the Tribeca Film Festival and has been a hit at the Italian box office, scoring around $7.5 million It will be released in the US via Film Movement.
Hearing the news, Virzì said "I am very honoured.
"It's a great responsibility to represent our country in such a complicated and lively moment for our cinema," he added.
Italy's Oscar shortlist included Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders, Francesco Munzi's Black Souls, Ferzan Ozpetek's Fasten Your Seatbelts, Edoardo Winspeare's Quiet Bliss, the Manetti Bros.' Song e' Napule and Carlo Verdone's Sotto una Buona Stella.
The selection panel included directors Gianni Amelio and Gabriele Salvatores, producers Tommaso Arrighi and Angelo Barbagallo, and distributor Barbara Salabe among other industry figures. In March The Great Beauty gave Italy its eleventh best-film Oscar win in history, the most ever for any country in the category.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said the win was a mark of "Italian pride," in a tweet, reflecting the front page of every national daily.
The prize put Italy two statuettes ahead of France's nine foreign-Oscar wins, 15 years after Italy's last Academy Award for Roberto Benigni's Holocaust tragicomedy Life Is Beautiful.
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