La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) has been nominated for a Golden Globe award, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Thursday in Los Angeles.
Fresh from victory at the European Film Awards, held in Berlin on December 7, where it was awarded best film, best director (Paolo Sorrentino) and best actor (Toni Servillo), The Great Beauty has been nominated as Best Foreign Language Film in the awards to be announced next month, on January 12.
"I'm very happy," Sorrentino said in a phone interview to La Repubblica. "The Golden Globes are such an important event. This for me is a moment of pure happiness. I never would have imagined when we started on this project."
The Golden Globes honor the year's best film and television productions, and are often seen as a pointer for the Academy Awards.
The Great Beauty, compared by some to the work of legendary director Federico Fellini, will also be Italy's contender in the upcoming selection of the five nominees for the Academy Award for best foreign language film. The five nominees will be announced on January 16. The 86th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2014.
The Great Beauty was also nominated for the Golden Palm at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Italy has not won an Academy Award since Roberto Benigni's La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful) 15 years ago.
