The Hand of God by award-winning Italian film director Paolo Sorrentino has been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday night. The coming-of-age film, whose original Italian title is È stata la mano di Dio, is listed among 15 hopefuls vying for a nomination in the academy's best international movie category.

It will be known on 8 February if Sorrentino's film will be nominated for an Oscar, and whether the 51-year-old Neapolitan director has a chance of bringing home a second Academy Award on 27 March, eight years after the one he received for The Great Beauty. The news comes a week after the new movie was nominated in the 'Best Film - Foreign Language' category of the Golden Globes whose awards ceremony in Los Angeles is scheduled on 9 January.