De Laurentiis awards his own football Oscars

With the Oscars coming up in just over a month, film producer and Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has decided to nominate his own Academy Award winners from the football world.

In an interview with Sky Sport 24, the enigmatic 66-year-old picked his best actor, supporting actor, team and director from Serie A this season.

Unusually for De Laurentiis, his selections were not all about his own side, in fact he refrained from handing out the awards to those representing the Partenopei, stating it would be "too obvious".

Instead, the nephew of legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis opted to hand the award of "Best Actor" to Fiorentina attacker Nikola Kalinic, who has scored 10 goals in 20 appearances for the Viola this term.

The Best Supporting Actor accolade went to goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano of Sampdoria, while the Best Film (Team) in De Laurentiis' mind was Eusebio Di Francesco's Sassuolo.

And when it came to deciding who deserved the Best Director, De Laurentiis said: "No, I cannot give it to Napoli's Maurizio Sarri. Otherwise, out of encouragement, I would give it to Roma's Luciano Spalletti, who I want to wish good luck. He has sacrificed himself in a difficult situation."