Italian film-maker Giuseppe Tornatore is set to try for his second foreign-film Oscar with his latest work, La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman).
La Sconosciuta, Tornatore's first film since 2000's Malena with Monica Bellucci, is the grim, noir-ish story of a Ukrainian woman forced into prostitution in Italy who tries to rebuild her family.
Tornatore - who received another foreign-film nomination in 1996 for his Uomo delle Stelle - on Wednesday thanked the Italian panel which selected his film as its candidate.
Asked if he hoped to repeat his 1990 win, he replied: "I'm not thinking about that, but you never know".
He said the film had received a warm reaction in early showings in the US, especially from women spectators who flooded him with congratulatory e-mails.
Tornatore called the film's protagonist "a hero of our times".
The film, starring Russian stage actress Ksenia Rappaport - "an artist of great sensitivity and range" - has already won a slew of awards in Italy.
Rappaport is on screen throughout the movie, "something that is definitely tough to do," the director added.
Tornatore, 51, hit the jackpot in 1990 when his Nuovo Cinema Paradiso won the Acadamy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The previous year it had taken the Cannes Film Festival by storm, winning the Special Jury Prize.
The film, a nostalgic tear-jerker and paean to the magic of movies starring the late Philippe Noiret, regularly features on lists of favourite films worldwide.
Earlier this year it was voted the best foreign film of all time in a British survey.
