Italian director's film nominated in best documentary section.

Gianfranco's Rosi's poetic film is about the inhabitants of the Italian island of Lampedusa against the background of the dramatic rescue of refugees from the Mediterranean. Originally put forward for the best film section it is now among the five documentaries up for an Oscar this year. The film won Berlin's Golden Bear award at the Berlin festival last year.

The other films nominated in the documentary section are I am not Your Negro based on James Baldwin's writings; Life Animated about how an autistic boy and his family find ways to communicate, based on the book by his father Ros Suskind ; OJ: Made in America about O.J. Simpson; and 13th which looks at the prison system in the United States.