Two Sons Of Francisco, a biopic about Brazilian country music duo Zeze DiCamargo & Luciano, has become the highest-grossing Brazilian film of theyear in its home territory.

The film has topped thecharts for six weeks straight, grossing just over $10m (R$22.7m) since itsdebut on August 19, according to local distributor Columbia TriStar. It's alsobeen chosen to represent Brazil in the best foreign-language film category of theOscars.

With 3.1 million admissions,Two Sons has easily overtaken Brazilian production Xuxa e o Tesouroda Cidade Perdida, which attracted 1.3 million moviegoers earlier thisyear. It's also the third biggest film of the year in terms of admissionsbehind US releases The Incredibles, which clocked up4.29 million admissions, and Madagascar with 4.26million tickets sold.

The film, which is the directorialdebut of DoP Breno Silveira (Me, You And Them), is estimated to end itsrun with 4 million admissions according to local film company Filme B, whichspecialises in theatrical market numbers.

Still playing on 290screens, Two Sons will certainly top Fernando Meirelles' Brazilian crimeepic City Of God, which sold 3.3 million tickets in 2002. However,Hector Babenco's Carandiru, which attracted 4.6 million viewers in thesame year, will be harder to overtake.

Sony Pictures Classics isunderstood to be interested in acquiring US rights to the film which isproduced by Conspiracao Filmes and Globo Filmes, the film arm of leading Brazilianbroadcaster Globo TV.

The film's success can bepartly attributed to the popularity of Zeze Di Camargo and Luciano, who releasedtheir first album in 1991 and had the hit E o Amor which sold more than1 million copies. Since then the duo has sold 22 million copies in Brazil.