Italy's Oscar hopeful Gomorrah will be released in the United States on December 19, just over a month before the Academy Award nominees are announced.
Matteo Garrone's hard-hitting Naples Mob expose', adapted from Roberto Saviano's worldwide bestseller on the Camorra crime syndicate, is bidding for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.
It also hopes for a nod among the best films of the year in the States as well as screenplay and director nominations.
Gomorrah ('Gomorra' in Italian, a play on Camorra) made its debut outside Italy a week ago, rising to third spot in Spain's box office charts.
Distributor Alta Films has decided to release another 13 prints, making 90 in all.
Earlier this month Gomorrah earned applause from an audience in Hollywood including Academy members Oliver Stone and Paul Mazursky.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is set to vote a 'long list' of nine foreign films in a month's time and whittle it down to the five Oscar nominees in late January, a month before the Oscar ceremony.
Gomorrah, which won second prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival and bagged the best screenplay award at the recent Chicago Film Fest, is seen as the early favourite for the honour.
Other notable entrants in this year's race include a rare appearance from Britain, where Welsh director Karl Francis's Hope Eternal is entered.
A record 67 entries are vying for a nomination this year, including for the first time a film from Jordan.
The five nominees will jostle for the most famous statuette in showbusiness on February 22.
