Bent Hamer's Cannes charmer Kitchen Stories has been selected as Norway's official entry to the Oscars in the foreign language film category.

The original comedy had its premiere at the Tromsoe Film Festival in January where it picked up the FIPRESCI award, and has since been around the world from Cannes to Toronto, and has been sold to some 30 countries including the US.

Norway has previously had three films nominated in this category, The Pathfinder (1987), The Other Side Of Sunday (1997) and Elling (2002).

Kitchen Stories follows Swedish researchers on an field trip to Norway, where rural Landstad is singled out because of its unusual high number of unmarried men.