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

The news means that the 51-year-old Neapolitan director has a chance of bringing home a second Academy Award on 27 March, eight years after his movie The Great Beauty won an Oscar in 2013. Telling the story of a teenage boy in Naples in the 1980s, Sorrentino's largely autobiographical film stars Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo.