Saturday, November 08, 2008

European Film Award Nominees

As discussed on the recent podcast, the European Film Awards will never be as big as the Oscars, because even in more multilingual places than the US, distribution is an unpredictable game. France isn't going to get the same titles as Norway. Italy won't show every movie that screens in the UK. Israeli screen choices don't mirror those in Spanish movie houses. And so on and so on... It's tougher to have fun arguments on awards-worth when everyone has access to different movies. But that said, the EFAs are still interesting and offer yet another window into what movies in a given year inspire those with ballots in hand.

European Film
Il Divo and The Orphanage aren't up for Oscars this year (Orphanage was eligible in '07 and didn't receive attention) but Gomorra and The Class are among the likeliest contenders for Best Foreign Language Film. Bashir, being animated, will be a tougher sell for AMPAS voters who have never nominated a cartoon in that category, despite numerous drawn submissions. Happy-Go-Lucky is an Oscar contender of some sort. But what sort?

European Actress
Two buzzy Oscar contenders for Best Actress right here (Sally & Kristin, come on down). Expect to hear their names all throughout awards season. But will Oscar's final shortlist have room for both? [Note: the other women aren't eligible due to release dates... but Hiam Abbas is featured in the well liked Richard Jenkins vehicle The Visitor and one assumes she'll be campaigned for that.]

European Actor
I know you're reading James McAvoy's name and everything else has become a blur. Snap out of it! Only Fassbender is eligible for Best Actor Oscar consideration but he's an extreme longshot. Why? A) it's not a sentimental performance. B) The movie is even harsher C) a December release for a challenging film without stars or Oscar-quantity director faces a nearly insurmountable task: how to carve out attention for oneself amidst all the crowd pleasers, A-Listers, audience coddling middlebrow fare and the freaking holidays themselves?

You can read the full list of nominees over @ European Films
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10 comments:

Glenn said...

Lemon Tree has become a bit of an arthouse smash down here where it was released a little bit after The Visitor, which I'm sure is a bit responsible. I know I was immediately much more interested in the film once I saw Abbass, who was just lovely in The Visitor.

Anonymous said...

And Heath Ledger received a Best Actor nod for THE DARK KNIGHT from the Australian Film Institute!!!!

Oh, and speaking of Ledger, check out what Alec Baldwin recently said about him:

During a Time magazine interview, Alec Baldwin “took a moment from discussing art’s importance to compliment Heath Ledger: ‘Watch a movie like Brokeback Mountain, which is an incredible movie. You know, Heath Ledger dying was this huge tragedy because he gave one of the greatest screen performances of a male performer in 50 years, literally. Like with Brando. I would never say that, but he was that great in that movie. Forget Batman and all this other crap. Brokeback Mountain was just unbelievable.’”

Anonymous said...

im just dying to see who the critics awards side with: Hawkins or Scott-Thomas…

...or maybe they’ll bow to one of the bigger names (Streep, Winslet, Hathaway)

Anonymous said...

Nat,

have you heard about that strange project with Kidman playing Theron's transexual lover ?

I thought it was april's fool but we're in november and it's being reporter by the Hollwood Reporter, and there are producers, a writer and a director attached.

Theron and Kidman as lovers ? I can't take it. It's too much for me. Pure moviegasm

Olli

Anonymous said...

I'm glad two italian movies are in the best picture category, expecially because GOMORRAH and IL DIVO are quite good and are not the tyipical italian productions...I'm not a great Mike Leigh's fan, but I loved THE CLASS very much...maybe because I'm teacher too...

Best Actress: Love Scott-Thomas come back...actually she never went away, people simply overlooked her talent. I liked also Rueda, Dobroshi and Abbas calls...I don't know anything about german actress...maybe Hawkins will win...normally Leigh's girls are awards-magnets

Best Actor: Fassbender or McAvoy? Hard to choose!!! Really hard. Servillo is nominated for the two italian flicks, but his perf in IL DIVO is far superior than the one in GOMORRAH (which anyway IMHO is a better movie). I like Mikkelsen but frankly haven't seen his picture yet...I can't say anything about Lindhardt, Vogel and Wepper...sorry...

mirko s.

NicksFlickPicks said...

Can we find some of these hypothetical people among the EFA nominators who think The Orphanage is a better movie than Hunger?

Anonymous said...

This is a great list of nominees!

NATHANIEL R said...

nick i haven't seen The Orphanage but Hunger is better than Gomorra so even without seeing the movie you don't like, your point stands ;)

Anonymous said...

Nathaniel, what did you think of Fassbender's performance? Awardworthy?

NATHANIEL R said...

i wrote about The Hunger briefly here