Bruno Barreto's Last Stop 174 has been selected as Brazil's official entry for the best foreign language film category of the Academy Awards.

The social drama had its world premiere in Toronto and will open the Rio International Film Festival on Sept 25.

The story expands on a real-life event, the hijacking of a bus in Rio de Janeiro in 2000, that inspired Jose Padilha's documentary Bus 174 (2002). It supposedly tells the story of the hostage-taker, Sandro do Nascimento, a 21 year old homeless man who terrorized 11 passengers for 4½ hours and was killed by asphyxiation in a police car on the way to the hospital.

Last Stop 174 focuses on how he was doomed to become a criminal. After seeing his mother being murdered when he was six years old, Sandro became a street kid and later started to steal to sustain his drug addition.

Myriad Pictures has sales rights and Paramount Pictures, which was a co-production partner, has rights in Latin America.

The film was chosen over 13 Brazilian titles including Chico Teixeira Alice's House, Lina Chamie's The Milky Way, Breno Silveira's Once Upon a Time..., Marcos Jorge's Estomago, Sandra Kogut's Mutum and Hector Babenco's The Past.

Barreto has already been to the Oscars. His Four Days in September was nominated for the best foreign language film in 1998, when Character from The Netherlands took the award.

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