BRASILIA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The movie "The Great Mystical Circus" by Brazilian director Carlos Diegues was chosen to represent Brazil in the Best Foreign Language Film category during the 2019 Oscars, the Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday.

The decision was made by a commission of professionals in the industry coordinated by the ministry.

The feature-length film, directed by one of the noted directors from the Cinema Novo era of the 1960s, was chosen from among 23 candidates.

According to the commission, the film was selected based on its poetic force and the presence of Brazilian music.

The movie, which mixes fantasy with reality, tells the story of five generations of a family who owns a circus under the watchful eyes of Celavi, the master of ceremonies who never ages.

The story begins with the encounter of a dancer and a doctor at the start of the 20th century.

The doctor, who falls in love with the dancer, gives her a circus that her family runs for decades. The story goes to present day.

The selection committee said it also took into consideration past awards won by the film, its impact and the criteria set by the Oscar committee.

For his part, the Ministry of Culture's audiovisual secretary, Frederico Mascarenhas said the film will receive 200,000 U.S. dollars to promote it outside of Brazil and to increase its chances in the Oscar competition.

Diegues, 78, was chosen to sit on the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters), a Brazilian literary non-profit society more than a week ago.

The majority of the 18 films directed by Diegues have been chosen at one moment or another by the major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, New York and Toronto and were shown in Europe, the United States and Latin America.