(Rome) God’s hand by Paolo Sorrentino has been chosen to represent Italy at the Oscars 2022 in the category of best foreign language film, the association representing the Italian film industry announced on Tuesday.
” God’s hand is my most important and most painful film and I am happy that all this pain has today led to joy ”, reacted the Neapolitan director, quoted by the agency Ansa. Sorrentino had already won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2014 with The great bellezza.
“Today’s stage is only the first and the beauty of this competition is that it is the only one in the world where the fact of arriving already in the top five is a victory,” he said. he adds.
The announcement of the five foreign films in the running for this prestigious Oscar is scheduled for February 8. God’s hand will face among others the film presented by France, Titanium by Julia Ducournau, winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
God’s hand is an autobiographical tale written by Sorrentino himself, who at the age of 16 lost his parents to a carbon monoxide leak.
It was his passion for football and, in particular, for the Naples team and for its star Maradona, that prevented the director from suffering the same fate as his parents, because the young Sorrentino was not with his parents. . He had gone to see his favorite team play, thus escaping death.
The film, which won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize in September at the Venice Film Festival, will air on Netflix from December 17.