Italian screenwriter Alessandro Camon received an Oscar nod Tuesday for anti-war drama The Messenger, one of three Italian nominations including cinematography for Avatar and make-up for Il Divo. Camon, 46, son of novelist Ferdinando Camon, said he was thrilled at the recognition for the original screenplay he co-wrote with director Oren Moverman. "I was sleeping when a friend rang up and told me. I told her I'd never talk to her again if she was joking," Camon told ANSA. "It's great because it was an independent, low-budget film that made it purely on word of mouth".

Camon, whose mother is the noted journalist Gabriella Imperatori, said he devoted the nomination to slain soldiers and the families they leave behind. "I wrote this screenplay for them, because the stories of these men deeply affect me," he said. The Padua-born Camon, who is married to US producer Suzanne Warren, is also a producer whose credits include Thank You For Smoking, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans and Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. The screenplay for The Messenger won a Silver Lion at last year's Berlin Film Festival.

Of the other Italian nominations, pundits think Mauro Fiore, cinematographer of James Cameron's record-breaking sci-fi epic Avatar, is the best tip to pick up the statuette on March 7. Calabrian-born Fiore, 52, whose other credits include Training Day and The Island, would appear to have the edge, they say, because of the groundbreaking technology of the 3-D blockbuster, which co-leads the Oscar race with nine nods, the same as The Hurt Locker by Cameron's ex-wife Catherine Bigelow. As well as The Hurt Locker, Fiore will be up against the cinematographers of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon.

Make-up artists Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano will be competing against Star Trek and The Young Victoria for their work in Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, where they transformed the tall and lean Toni Servillo into an eeriely convincing impersonation of Italian statesman Giulio Andreotti. photo: Camon with his Silver Bear on February 14.