Mario Martone's Naples mob drama Nostalgia, Italy's candidate for next year's Oscars, has been selected as the European film of the year by the annual Capri, Hollywood International Film Festival.
The film, which won four Silver Ribbons from Italian film critics in June, including best director, best actor, best supporting actor, and best screenplay, stars Pierfrancesco Favino as a Naples native who returns to his home town after 40 years in Egypt and reconnects with a childhood friend who has become a Camorra boss.
The board of the Capri, Hollywood fest, which opens the international film festival season on December 26 to January 2, selected Nostalgia because it is a “precious and poetic work”, said honorary chair Noa, the Israeli singer who has longstanding ties to Naples and its culture.
A shortlist of 21 candidates for the International Feature Film Award at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12 next year will be unveiled on December 21.
The five nominations will be announced on January 24.
The film, adapted from Ermanno Rea's 2016 novel of the same name, will shortly be shown in New York by Italo-American actor and director John Turturro before doing the rounds at the remainder of the pre-Oscar festivals.
