The disappointment of Paolo Sorrentino, no Oscar for “It was the Hand of God”

No encore for Paolo Sorrentino. The Oscar for Best International Film eventually went to Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. An alternative ending to the one he saw as the winner It was the Hand of Godhis autobiographical film, in which Italy would have stood out again, after the last success in 2014, with the same Neapolitan director who won the golden statuette for The great beauty (at the time, the category was called Best Foreign Language Film).

A disappointment for Sorrentino, present at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, still in progress, at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, together with Filippo Scotti, the young actor who played Fabietto, the director’s alter ego, Luisa Ranieri, who he wore the shoes of Aunt Patrizia, in addition to his wife Daniela D’Antonio. In addition to Toni Servillo, who did not participate even eight years ago, the actress Teresa Saponangelo was also absent, who was entrusted with the role of her mother, the protagonist of a photo published on the eve of the highly anticipated night on Instagram by the director, taken directly from his childhood. «Today, after two years of work, with the Oscars ceremony, the cycle of this film ends – reads the post – For months I have been asked why I made this film and I have not found an authentic answer. Today I found it: I wanted to go back, if only for a moment, to this photo. To my mother”

Produced by Netflix with The Apartment by Lorenzo Mieli, production company of the Fremantle group, It was the hand of God tells the story of Naples in the Eighties, through the life of Fabietto Schisà, a 16-year-old boy, alter-ego of the director himself, this time the only author of the screenplay. A life, which is upset by two parallel events: the tragic accident, which leads to the death of his parents, and the arrival in the city of the Argentine champion, Diego Armando Maradona.

As for the other Italians in competition, the director Enrico Casarosa with Luca for Best Animated Film and Massimo Cantini Parrini for Cyrano’s costumes, no good news: no statuette.