Having picked up awards at various festivals, including in Berlin, Sydney and Melbourne and the Tribeca fest, the Lao-language film "The Rocket" is all set to walk the red carpet at the Oscars. "The Rocket" is Australia's official entry in the foreign language film category for the 2014 Academy Awards. Reports said, the film marks the third time in four years that Australia has submitted a foreign language film for Oscar contention.

Written and directed by Kim Mordaunt and produced by Sylvia Wilczynski, the movie tells the story of a young Laotian boy who leads his family, along with a couple of ragged misfits, across war-torn Laos to the dangerous Rocket Festival competition. There, he builds a giant rocket to try to prove he is not cursed. The movie was filmed entirely in Laos. The movie, well appreciated at festivals, was released by distributor Curious Films in Australia on Aug 29

Reports say the feel-good film, lauded in particular for the performances of its first-time child actors, won the best feature honour in the Generation Kplus program. It bagged the best first feature and the Amnesty International Film Prize at this year's Berlinale. It also won the honours for best narrative feature and best actor, along with the audience award, at the Tribeca Film Festival. The movie also took the audience awards at both the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals.

Released on 13 screens in Australia, the movie raked in AUS$ 217,222 ($206,360) in its first two weeks at the box office, with a per-screen average last weekend of $3,614. Reports said the movie will premier in UK at the London Film Festival and its Asian premiere will be at the Busan International Film Festival in October.