There are sixteen Oscar® nominations for films presented at the RomeFilmFest last October, which will be back for its third edition in 2008 from October 22 to 31.

Goffredo Bettini, president of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, states: ‘We are delighted with sixteen nominations obtained overall by Juno,Mongol, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Into the Wild, Across the Universe, August Rush, Enchanted, Taxi to the Dark Side and War/Dance. This follows the four Oscars given to The Departedlast year. Now coming up for its third edition, the RomeFilmFest has already become a solid platform for the launch and international promotion for both big budget pictures like Elizabeth and for independent films such as this year’s real discovery, Juno‘. 

In more detail, Juno, winner of Rome’s Marco Aurelio for Best Film in 2007, has chalked up four prestigious Academy Award nominations. It will be competing in the categories of Best Film, Best Director (Jason Reitman), Best Actress (Ellen Page) and Best Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody). Out of the other films screened at Rome’s main competition, Mongol has received a nomination as Best Foreign Language Film. Other films presented at the Fest and now nominated for the Oscars include Elizabeth: The Golden Age – running in two categories, with Cate Blanchett as Best Actress and Alexandra Byrne for Best Costume Design – and Into the Wild (Hal Holbrook as Best Supporting Actor and Jay Cassidy for Best Editing). There were also nods for Across The Universe (Best Costume Design) and August Rush in the category of Best Original Song (Raise it up) together with Enchanted, which received three nominations in the same section (for Happy Working Song, So Close and That’s How You Know). Finally, in the running for Best Documentary are War/Dance and Taxi to the Dark Side,both presented in the Extra section at Rome in October.