Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete (A Prophet; France 2009) is leading the nominations for this year's European Film Awards with 6 nods, followed by Danny Boyle's Oscar winning crowd pleaser, Slumdog Millionaire (UK 2008), which nabbed five. Stephen Daldry's The Reader, a German-US-UK co-production, and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank - which premièred at Cannes this year - received three nominations each, as did Michael Haneke's Das weisse Band (The White Ribbon), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
2009 can be considered a very strong year for European Film, artistically as well as commercially, as films like Haneke's Das weisse Band or Arnold's Fish Tank have opened to wide critical acclaim, while others, such as Abrazos Rotos(Broken Embraces), Slumdog Millionaire, Lars von Trier's Antichrist (Germany/ Denmark/US 2009), or The Reader proved to be very popular with audiences around the world while also scooping up awards. It is worth mentioning in this context, that Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen (Germany 2009), which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Venice Film Festival, had not yet been released by the time the nominations for the European Film Awards were announced. Hence, it did not qualify for this year's entry.
Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum, Germany, a former power station and the venue of this year's European Film Awards Ceremony.
The awards ceremony will be held on 12 December in Bochum, of all places. I predict, that given the, shall we say, somewhat unglamorous location for this event, the star turn-out will be at an all-time low. However, the venue chosen for the occasion is a former power station - think Battersea - and Bochum itself has, of course, taken pains recently to rid itself of the white-trash-coal-mining image and replace it with a layer of cultural cachet. I doubt, though, that anyone beyond the borders of the 'Ruhrpott' has taken notice. But, perhaps, that's precisely what the organisers of this year's European Film Awards Ceremony are trying desperately to rectify.
Here is a full list of nominees:
EUROPEAN FILM 2009
FISH TANK, UK
written and directed by Andrea Arnold
produced by Kees Kasander & Nick Laws
LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN (Let the Right One in), Sweden
directed by Tomas Alfredson
written by John Ajvide Lindqvist
produced by John Nordling & Carl Molinder
UN PROPHETE (A Prophet), France
directed by Jacques Audiard
written by Jacques Audiard & Thomas Bidegain based on an original idea by Abdel Raouf Dafri after an original screenplay by Abdel Raouf Dafri & Nicolas Peufaillit
produced by Chic Films & Page 114 & Why Not Productions
THE READER (Der Vorleser), Germany, UK
directed by Stephen Daldry
written by David Hare
produced by Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti &
Redmond Morris
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, UK
directed by Danny Boyle
written by Simon Beaufoy
produced by Christian Colson
DAS WEISSE BAND (The White Ribbon), Germany, Austria, France, Italy
written and directed by Michael Haneke
produced by Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Margaret Menegoz &
Andrea Occhipinti
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2009
Pedro Almodóvar for LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS (Broken Embraces)
Andrea Arnold for FISH TANK
Jacques Audiard for UN PROPHETE (A Prophet)
Danny Boyle for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Michael Haneke for DAS WEISSE BAND (The White Ribbon)
Lars von Trier for ANTICHRIST
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2009
Moritz Bleibtreu in DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (The Baader Meinhof Complex)
Steve Evets in LOOKING FOR ERIC
David Kross in THE READER (Der Vorleser)
Dev Patel in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Tahar Rahim in UN PROPHETE (A Prophet)
Filippo Timi in VINCERE
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2009
Penélope Cruz in LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS (Broken Embraces)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in ANTICHRIST
Katie Jarvis in FISH TANK
Yolande Moreau in SERAPHINE
Noomi Rapace in MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Kate Winslet in THE READER (Der Vorleser)
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2009
Jacques Audiard & Thomas Bidegain for UN PROPHETE (A Prophet)
Simon Beaufoy for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Gianni di Gregorio for PRANZO DI FERRAGOSTO (Mid-August Lunch)
Michael Haneke for DAS WEISSE BAND (The White Ribbon)
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2009
Christian Berger for DAS WEISSE BAND (The White Ribbon)
Anthony Dod Mantle for ANTICHRIST & SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Maxim Drozdov & Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev for BUMAZHNY SOLDAT (Paper Soldier)
Stéphane Fontaine for UN PROPHETE (A Prophet)
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY PRIX D’EXCELLENCE 2009
Francesca Calvelli for the Editing, VINCERE
Catherine Leterrier for the Costume Design, COCO AVANT CHANEL (Coco Before Chanel)
Waldemar Pokromski for Make Up and Hair, DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (The Baader Meinhof Complex)
Brigitte Taillandier, Francis Wargnier, Jean-Paul Hurier & Marc Doisne for the Sound Design, UN PROPHETE (A Prophet)
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2009
Alexandre Desplat for COCO AVANT CHANEL (Coco Before Chanel)
Jakob Groth for MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Alberto Iglesias for LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS (Broken Embraces)
Johan Söderqvist for LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN (Let the Right One in)
