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Oscars: Italy selects Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘The Hand Of God’ as International Feature submission

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Oct 26, 2021, 07:06 PM IST
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Photograph:(Twitter)

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The Hand of God is an autobiographical story of the filmmaker’s own youth and the tragedy of losing his parents as a teenager.

With the Oscars 2022 deadline coming close for submissions, countries have started sending their official selection for the coming year of the Academy Awards in the category of International Feature Film. 

Italy is the most recent to have sent its film for Oscars 2022 and it is Paolo Sorrentino’s Venice Grand Jury Prize winner ‘The Hand Of God’. The film has travelled to several film festivals including the Telluride and London Film Festivals, among others. 

The Hand of God is an autobiographical story of the filmmaker’s own youth and the tragedy of losing his parents as a teenager. Set in 1980s Naples, the film centers on Fabietto Schisa. Fabietto is an awkward Italian teen whose life and vibrant, eccentric family are suddenly upended — first by the electrifying arrival of soccer legend Diego Maradona, and then by a shocking accident from which Maradona inadvertently saves Fabietto, setting his future in motion.

The Netflix drama will release theatrically in Italy on November 24, followed by select cinemas in the rest of the world on December 3 and will hit the streaming service on December 15.

Interestingly, filmmaker Sorrentino previously won the Oscar in this category with 2013’s ‘The Great Beauty’. This is the second time he will represent Italy which has taken the top prize 11 times.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce its shortlisted candidates on December 21, 2021.