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ROME, Oct 22 (AFP) - Cristina Comencini's film "La bestia nel cuore" has been named Italy's entry for next year's Oscar for best foreign-language film after director Saverio Costanzo's "Private" was rejected by the Academy Awards committee, the panel selecting the Italian film said Friday.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences earlier this month rejected "Private" because the film, the dialogue of which is in Arabic, Hebrew and English, is not "predominantly" Italian.
No Italian is spoken in the film, which tells the wrenching story of the family of a Palestinian professor trapped in their home by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, and there are no Italians in the cast.
In "La bestia nel cuore" (The Beast in the Heart) Cristina Comencini, the daughter of renowned Italian director Luigi Comencini, deals with the issues of childhood incest and lesbianism.
Italian critics heaped praise on her film at last month's Venice film festival. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, who plays the lead, won the festival's female Coppa Volpi prize for her role as a woman beset by nightmares.
The Los Angeles Academy invited 91 countries to present films for consideration for the 2006 Oscar for best foreign-language film.
Nominations for the 78th annual Academy Awards will be unveiled just before dawn on January 31 and the golden statuettes will be handed out at a glittering red-carpet ceremony in Hollywood on March 5.
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AFPEntertainment-film-US-Oscars-Italy
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