Italy in the running for Oscars 2022. It was the hand of God in the five

Italy will compete at the2022 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (officially from 2020 “Oscar for Best International Film”). Trying to bring the statuette back to Italy eight years after La grande bellezza will be Paolo Sorrentino, the last Italian director to win it: his film È stato la mano di Dio, an autobiographical account of his youth in 1980s Naples reeling from the local soccer team’s purchase of Diego Maradona, enters the five-person shortlist that will vie for the coveted prize.

Sorrentino’s film was nominated today along with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive my car (Japan), Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee (Denmark), Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Lunana: a yak in the classroom (Bhutan) and Joachim Trier’s The worst person in the world (Norway). In 2021, the Oscar for best foreign film had gone to Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (Denmark). Italy, with 14 triumphs, is the winningest country in the competition’s history, followed by France (12) and Spain, Russia and Denmark (four wins each).

The five nominated films won a selection in which 87 films participated, 14 of which went on to reach the semifinals. Sorrentino’s film, starring Filippo Scotti as Fabietto Schisa (Sorrentino’s alter ego as a young man) and Toni Servillo as his father Saverio, already arrives on the strength of a shower of awards: the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival (where it was also awarded the Mastroianni Prize for Filippo Scotti and the Pasinetti Prize for Teresa Saponangelo, best actress, and for best film), a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Golden Globes, a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Baftas, a Best Film nomination at the European Film Awards, and numerous others.

“I am overjoyed by this nomination, for me it is already a great victory,” said Paolo Sorrentino hotly. “And a cause for emotion, because it is a prestigious recognition of the themes of the film, which are the things I believe in: irony, freedom, tolerance, pain, lightheartedness, will, the future, Naples and my mother.”

But Italy will not only be represented by Sorrentino’s film. In fact, also vying for a statuette is the film Luca, which despite being an entirely U.S. production is directed by an Italian director, Enrico Casarosa from Genoa. Finally, a third nomination is for Massimo Cantini Parrini, for the costumes of Cyrano, a co-production between the UK, the US, Canada and Italy.

"The Oscar nominations of Paolo Sorrentino for the direction of It was the Hand of God, Enrico Casarosa for the direction of Luca and Massimo Cantini Parrini for the costumes of Cyrano are a great result for Italian cinema, which confirms itself to be in excellent health and capable, with its creative genius, of garnering audiences and acclaim internationally," said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. “A big good luck to the Italian artists in the running for the most coveted statuette in world cinema.”

Pictured is a still from It was the Hand of God.

Italy in the running for Oscars 2022. It was the hand of God in the five

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