Italian cinema was given a lift on Wednesday when films by two of its top young directors were included in the line-up for this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo about controversial Italian statesman Giulio Andreotti and Matteo Garrone's Neapolitan mafia pic Gomorra will both be vying for the French fest's coveted Palme d'Or award.
Festival chief Thierry Fremaux said the inclusion of the two films marked a comeback for Italian cinema, which failed to make the list last year.
''This selection shows the vitality of young Italian filmmaking,'' he said.
A total of 20 films will be competing in the 61st edition of the world's biggest film festival, which runs from May 14-25.
Sorrentino, a 38-year-old Neapolitan director who competed unsuccessfully at Cannes in 2004 and 2006, focuses on the life of seven-time Christian Democrat premier who dominated Italian postwar politics for decades and was sensationally put on trial for alleged Mafia ties.
The 89-year-old life senator was acquitted of the charges and, in a separate trial, of accusations that he commissioned the murder of a journalist.
Sorrentino's film, which was made in top secrecy, is entitled after Andreotti's nickname ''Divo Giulio'' or Divine Julius - the same title Julius Caesar was known by.
Garrone's film, which is based on Roberto Saviano's worldwide best-seller Gomorra, also contains potentially explosive material.
Gomorra is Italian for Gomorrah, the Biblical sister of Sodom, and is a play on the name of the Naples' crime syndicate, the Camorra.
Roman director Garrone said recently that he wanted to show how Saviano's mobster characters tick and portray the violence the Camorra uses to rule the districts of Naples.
''It'll be a war film - a war taking place in 2007 just 150km south of Rome,'' said the 39-year-old director who sprang to prominence in 2002 with The Embalmer, a dark tale of obsession and murder involving a southern taxidermist.
Both Il Divo and Gomorra star Toni Servillo, who scooped the prize for best actor at last week's Italian Oscars.
Sorrentino and Garrone will be up against the likes of America's Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, a previous Cannes winner whose four-hour epic Che on the life of Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara looks set to be a highlight of this year's festival.
Clint Eastwood's Changeling starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich is also in the running together with Palermo Shooting, a road movie by cult German director Wim Wenders, and Canadian director Atom Egoyan's keenly awaited Adoration.
Wenders, who bagged the Palme d'Or in 1984 with Paris, Texas, will be adding his own Italian flavour to the festival with his latest movie, which was filmed in Sicily and stars acclaimed Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno.
Other Italian notes will be sounded by Marco Tullio Giordana, whose Sangue Pazzo set during the dying days of the Fascist Salo' Republic will be screened out of competition,
Giordana received a Cannes prize five years ago with La Meglio Gioventu (The Best of Youth), a six-hour saga recounting almost 40 years of Italian history through the eyes of two brothers.
Meanwhile, Il Resto della Notte (The Rest of the Night) by Francesco Munzi, whose previous movie Saimir met with critical acclaim, will be shown in the Quinzaine section of the festival.
The seven-member jury headed by American star Sean Penn also includes well-known Italian actor and director Sergio Castellitto as well as Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman.
