A women paints decorations for the Oscars Photo: VCG

 Marco Bellocchio's film The Traitor will represent Italy at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles this year, the Italian National Film Industry Association (ANICA) announced Tuesday. 

The biographical crime drama stars award-winning Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, 50, as organized crime boss Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-level informant against the Mafia who became a witness for the groundbreaking Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was assassinated by the mob in 1992.

Bellocchio, who turns 80 next month, has been making movies since the 1960s. 

In the course of his long and prolific career, he received 86 nominations, of which seven were for the Palme D'Or in Cannes. 

He has won 73 awards across several continents, including a Golden Bear in Berlin, a career Golden Lion in Venice, five Italian Golden Globes and three David di Donatello (Italy's Oscars). 

The Traitor has netted 10 awards and eight nominations so far, including a nomination for the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year and two Italian Golden Globes - one for Bellocchio and one for composer Nicola Piovani, who won an Academy Award in 1999 with his score for multiple Oscar-winning Italian movie Life Is Beautiful.

The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce its picks from the international submissions on January 13, 2020, and the winner of the Best Foreign Film award will be made known at the 92nd edition of the Oscars on February 9, 2020 ANICA said in a statement.