European Film Awards 2009, The Nominations

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)

The Lure Of The $

For years, US producers shied away from filming in the French capital unless for films with an excessively high budget as Paris as a film location suffered from the reputation of being outrageously expensive.
This, however, is now beginning to change as France is beginning to copy the film and subsidies policy of its neighbour to the east: Germany, waking up to the lure of the Big Bucks.

Through a clever subsidies policy that grants attractive tax breaks and money injections to films shot on location in Germany, for years, the German government has succesfully lured an increasing number of US film productions to its turf, notably Berlin and the Studio Babelsberg, loacted in nearby Potsdam. The truth of the matter is, that although US films - usually US-German coproductions such as The Reader (Germany/ USA 2008), Inglorious Basterds (Germany/ USA 2009) or Valkyrie (Germany/ USA 2008), etc. - do indeed receive generous subsidies coming from the German Government Film Fund, the film companies end up spending vast amounts of money in return - for local staff, hotels, catering, etc. Thus, by dint of the Film Fund, the German government not only gives the economy a boost, but, more importantly, the German film industry as a whole. Thus, the film industry has turned into one of Berlin's most important industries, employing around 13.000 people in over 2.000 companies.

France is now beginning to realise what it missed out on, and came up with its own, similar, government backed subsidy policy. Previously, only French films were eligible to state subsidies. From now on, however, echoeing its eastern neighbour, and with its eye on the dollar, of course, France grants attractve tax breaks to every foreign film which is shot - or partly shot - on location in Paris or the Ile de France.

The Reader, Stephen Daldry, Germany/ USA 2009

The original hauntingly beautiful poster for the film, which later was replaced as it was deemed not commercial enough.


In spite of the controversy Schlink's book as well as Daldry's film have caused around the globe, I must admit that I was moved and intrigued by both. The book I read a long time ago, the film, however, I only saw recently as mixed reviews and similar comments by friends didn't exactly inspire me to rush to see it. Perhaps, with my expectations so low, it is no surprise that I ended up liking the film - for rather than just being faithful to the book, I found that David Hare's screenplay added another layer to the narrative which made watching the film a provocative, interesting, experience.
First of all, I thought the performances were excellent throughout (Winslet's Oscar win is well justified, in my opinion, and I also liked the production values - production design, costumes, the camera - and, because the film has, I think, at least four different time levels, I found it didn't matter too much that there were two cinematographers (Roger Deakins and Chris Menges: as Deakins had another assignment, Menges got on board to shoot what was left) who obviously both have their separate approaches to lighting, camera angles, etc.
The heart, the essence, of the film, in a way, to me were the law school and courtroom scenes (with Bruno Ganz and Burkhart Klaussner respectively) and, of course, the end (with Lena Olin and Ralph Fiennes) as, to me, the film touches on two very tricky, yet important topics: the difficulty if not impossibility, to apply the laws of our time, meaning the laws of a democracy, to judge over the crimes committed under a - lawless - dictatorship. How can justice ever be done when evil prevailed? And now evil is being put on trial by laws which, in fact, are far too benevolent amd lenient in the light of the crimes committed ... Also, as one character rightly points out: by sheer coincidence Schmitz was convicted because of the book published by a survivor, but how about the many others? Is that fair? Is that democracy? Bruno Ganz rightly points out at some point that ‘in order to prove murder you have to prove intent’. Yes, that how it works in a democracy - but what’s on trial are people who were collaborators in mass murder. And making one woman pay while many others - if not the majority of a nation, many of whom were either bystanders or guilty of crimes themselves - got off 'unscathed'.
The other important topic is that of forgiveness; of reconciliation and, perhaps, the impossibility of it. Schmitz, surely, was not the worst of the perpetrators as one courtroom scene shows, since it is quite obvious that there was at least a certain level of remorse on her part regarding the crimes she committed. It is clear that (her shame for) her illiteracy was not the only reason why she claimed to have signed the order (leading to the death of 300 women!) which, of course, she couldn’t have done due to her illiteracy. I believe that she - and perhaps she was indeed the only one of all the women who were put on trial - was the one who realised that it didn't matter at all who signed the paper - fact is, they were all in it, 'the dead are still dead', as she herself says - and the least she, Schmitz, could do to atone for the crimes - as if atonement was ever possible - was admitting to them, even if it meant taking the rap for her partners in crime, too.
Olin, as the survivor, plays her role masterfully in my opinion, for one notices in the subtlety of her acting that although she is ever so slightly touched by Schmitz's gesture, too much has happened for her to accept Hanna's money, too much suffering has taken place for her to be able to forgive.



Kate Winslet on Oscar night.