European Film Awards Has Announced Nominees

Now that all the big festivals are wrapping up for the year, it's time to look at who is getting awards. The nominees for the 19th Annual European Film Awards were announced today at the Seville Film Festival. Previously, the awards have been held almost exclusively in Germany, and few other Western European locations including Glasgow and Paris. However this year, for a nice change of pace, the European Film Academy is going in a different direction. For the first time, the ceremony will enter Eastern Europe and air from Warsaw.

This is even more interesting considering one of the leaders in nominees is the wonderful German film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Lives of Others, which chronicles East German Stasi in the 1980's. Perhaps its strong showing was enough to make the academy look to the east. Along with Almodóvar's Volver, the two have dominated the nominations with six nods each. Both are up not only for best film, but also a number of acting and technical awards.

Other films to make the list are Neil Jordan's quirky Breakfast on Pluto, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross' The Road to Guantanamo, and Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley. However, I'm surprised to see a list without any nominations for Andrea Arnold's Red Road; after a Cannes Jury Pricz and number of British Independent Film Award nominations, I thought she was a shoo-in.

If the great films on this list are any indication, this should be an interesting season of awards. What say you?

[Check out the full list of nominees at the European Film Academy's website.]