RAI Trade, the film sales division of Italy's state-owned broadcast giant RAI, has picked up international distribution rights to Marco Bellocchio's Hour Of Religion.

Organisers at the David di Donatello awards ceremony held on April 10, announced that the Italian auteur's film will receive its international premiere at Cannes, where it is tipped for a place in competition. It will be Bellocchio's seventh appearance on the Croisette.

Hour Of Religion features well known actor Sergio Castellitto in the part of an atheist painter who finds out that his brothers want to beatify their dead mother. A co-production between Rai Cinema and Bellocchio production outfit Filmalbatros, Hour Of Religion will be released nationwide on April 19 on 50-70 screens by local distributor Istituto Luce.

Meanwhile, Rai Trade has also acquired world-wide sales rights to Amnesia, the latest film from Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores.

Other titles on Rai Trade's slate include Paz, a feature by Renato de Maria based on the work of famous Italian cartoonist Andrea Pazienza and Nina di Majo's Berlin title The Winter. It also has Santa Maradona, which recently earned Marco Ponti the best new director Donatello and a best supporting actor award for Libero de Rienzo.