Jonas Ash Carpignano's 'A
Ciambra' is Italy's candidate for the best foreign-language
Academy Award at the 2018 Oscars, a selection committee at the
Italian National Association of Film, Audiovisual and Multimedia
Industries (ANICA) decided on Tuesday.
The list of films nominated is set to be announced on January
23 ahead of the ceremony in Los Angeles on March 4.
The film by the Italian-American director focuses on a Roma
community in the Calabrian coastal town of Gioia Tauro, a story
of crime and deep family ties.
It centers on a 14-year-old Roma boy Pio, played by the young
Pio Amato, with the rest of his family acting alongside him.
Co-producing the film was film legend Martin Scorsese, who
chose it for support from a fund created with other producers to
help emerging directors.
Scorsese has called the film "beautiful and touching".
Carpignano, 33, said he got drunk "as a preventative measure"
after hearing the news that his latest film has been nominated
to represent Italy at the Oscars.
"I celebrated until dawn with my gypsies. We drank, we danced
the 'tarantella' and took Saint Cosmas and Damian on parade," he
told ANSA.
"This is a very important celebration here in Calabria and I
have not missed it for the past four years," he added.
"The news of my nomination to represent Italy at the Oscars
makes me very happy. Of course I was hoping for this. Now I'll
continue getting drunk."
After being presented in the Cannes Film Festival's Quinzaine
des Realisateurs section, where it won the Europa Cinema Label,
the film has been in cinemas since August 31.
The film is entirely set in the Roma community in Italy's
southern Reggio Calabria region.
"(Producer) Martin Scorsese," he added, "congratulated me. He
is rooting for me and we hope that this helps this film on its
long road ahead, which has only just begun".
It is the second film by the 33-year-old, whose
African-American mother is from New York but raised in the
Barbados and whose father is from the Italian capital.
'A Ciambra' beat off competition from 13 other films to
represent Italy.
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