Controversial director Lars von Trier's ‘Melancholia’ leads the way at the 24th European Film Awards, with seven nominations.
The apocalyptic drama will compete for the top prize with Michel Hazanavicius's black-and-white silent film ‘The Artist’, the Dardenne brothers', ‘The Kid With a Bike’, Aki Kaurismaki's ‘Le Havre’, and two past Oscar winners, Susanne Bier's Best Foreign-Language Film winner ‘In a Better World’ and Tom Hooper's Best Picture winning ‘The King's Speech.’
Von Trier himself gets a nod in the best director category, where he is up against fellow Dane Suzanne Bier, the Belgian Dardenne brothers, Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki and Britain's Tom Hooper.
‘Melancholia’ female leads, Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, have both been nominated for best actress alongside Tilda Swinton, who picked up a nomination for her portrayal of a mother coping with her son's penchant for evil in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
’The King's Speech’, Hooper's period drama about King George VI's struggle to overcome a debilitating stammer, also received a nod for best actor in the form of Oscar-winner Colin Firth.
In terms of nominations, five films tied for the second-highest number of nominations with four each: ‘The Artist’, ‘The Kid With a Bike’, ‘In a Better World’, ‘The King's Speech’ and ‘Le Havre’. The last of these, which also debuted in competition at Cannes, is a comedy drama about a French shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child.
The European film awards will be staged in Berlin on 2 December. Award recipients are decided by members of the 2,500-strong European Academy; past winners of the best film award include Roman Polanski's ‘The Ghost Writer’, Michael Haneke's ‘The White Ribbon’, Cristian Mungiu's ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's ‘The Lives of Others’ and Pedro Almodóvar's ‘Talk to Her’.
Irish co-production ‘Essential Killing’ has been nominated for the Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer Award, for Adam Sikora.
An Irish/Polish/Norwegian/Hungarian co-production, ‘Essential Killing’ was produced by Element Pictures (Garage, The Wind That Shakes The Barley), Skopia Film Production, Cylinder Productions and Mythberg Films with Andrew Lowe (Adam & Paul) the executive producer for Element. The film tells the story of Vincent Gallo’s Mohammed, who is captured by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and transported to a secret detention center in Europe.
European Film Award Nominees are:
EUROPEAN FILM 2011
THE ARTIST, France
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Michel Hazanavicius
PRODUCED BY: Thomas Langmann & Emmanuel Montamat
LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
PRODUCED BY: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd & Andrea Occhipinti
HĆVNEN (In a Better World), Denmark
DIRECTED BY: Susanne Bier
WRITTEN BY: Anders Thomas Jensen
PRODUCED BY: Sisse Graum Jřrgensen
THE KING'S SPEECH, UK
DIRECTED BY: Tom Hooper
WRITTEN BY: David Seidler
PRODUCED BY: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
LE HAVRE, Finland/France/Germany
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Aki Kaurismäki
PRODUCED BY: Aki Kaurismäki & Karl Baumgartner
MELANCHOLIA, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Lars von Trier
PRODUCED BY: Meta Louise Foldager & Louise Vesth
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2011
Susanne Bier for HĆVNEN (In a Better World)
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Béla Tarr for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2011:
Kirsten Dunst in MELANCHOLIA
Cécile de France in LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in MELANCHOLIA
Nadezhda Markina in ELENA
Tilda Swinton in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2011:
Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST
Colin Firth in THE KING'S SPEECH
Mikael Persbrandt in HĆVNEN (In a Better World)
Michel Piccoli in HABEMUS PAPAM
André Wilms in LE HAVRE
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2011:
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Anders Thomas Jensen for HĆVNEN (In a Better World)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2011:
Manuel Alberto Claro for MELANCHOLIA
Fred Kelemen for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Guillaume Schiffman for THE ARTIST
Adam Sikora for ESSENTIAL KILLING
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2011:
Tariq Anwar for THE KING'S SPEECH
Mathilde Bonnefoy for DREI (Three)
Molly Malene Stensgaard for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2011:
Paola Bizzarri for HABEMUS PAPAM
Antxón Gómez for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Jette Lehmann for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2011:
Ludovic Bource for THE ARTIST
Alexandre Desplat for THE KING'S SPEECH
Alberto Iglesias for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Mihály Vig for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
