Jonas Carpignano’s A Ciambra has been selected by Italy as the official candidate in the foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.

The film, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, recently won the Europa Cinemas Label Award in Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

In A Ciambra, a small Romani community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region’s factions – the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere, learning the necessary skills for life on the streets of their hometown. When Cosimo disappears and things start to go wrong, Pio sets out to prove he’s ready to step into his big brother’s shoes but soon finds himself faced with an impossible decision that will show if he is truly ready to become a man.

The film will released in theaters in the US in 2018 via Sundance Selects.