26th European Film Awards - Long List

As the European Film Academy just announced in Berlin, there are 46 films in this year’s EFA Selection, the list of films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2013. With 32 countries represented, from Austria to United Kingdom, the list once again illustrates the great diversity in European cinema. The selected films also cover a wide range of genres and themes from comedies to family, political and historical dramas, from thrillers to literature and theatre adaptations.

In the coming weeks, the 2,900 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter. The nominations will then be announced on 9 November at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain. A 7-member jury will decide on the awards recipients in the categories European Cinematographer, Editor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Composer and Sound Designer.

The 26th European Film Awards with the presentation of the winners will take place in Berlin on 7 December.

The EFA Selection 2013

8-PALLO (8-BALL), Aku Louhimies, Finland, 108 min
TΟ ΑΓΟΡΙ ΤΡΩΕΙ ΤΟ ΦΑΓΗΤΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΥΛΙΟΥ - TO AGORI TROI TO FAGITO TOU POULIOU (BOY EATING THE BIRD’S FOOD), Ektoras Lygizos, Greece, 80 min
Η ΑΙΏΝΙΑ ΕΠΙΣΤΡΟΦΉ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΤΏΝΗ ΠΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΆ - I AIONIA EPISTROFI TOU ANTONI PARASKEUA (THE ETERNAL RETURN OF ANTONIS PARASKEVAS), Elina Psykou,Greece, 88 min
LOS AMANTES PASAJEROS (I'M SO EXCITED!), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 90 min
ANNA KARENINA, Joe Wright, UK, 124 min
ARAF (ARAF- SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN), Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Turkey/France/Germany, 124 min
ÄTA SOVA DÖ (EAT SLEEP DIE), Gabriela Pichler, Sweden, 104 min
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, Peter Strickland, UK, 92 min
THE BEST OFFER, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy, 130 min
BLANCANIEVES, Pablo Berger, Spain/France, 104 min
BORGMAN, Alex van Warmerdam, The Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark, 113 min
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium, 100 min
THE CONGRESS, Ari Folman, Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium, 120 min
ЦВЕТЬТ НА ХАМЕЛЕОНА - CVETAT NA HAMELEONA (THE COLOUR OF THE CHAMELEON), Emil Christov, Bulgaria, 111 min
DANS LA MAISON (IN THE HOUSE), François Ozon, France, 105 min
DJÚPIÐ (THE DEEP), Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland/Norway, 92 min
ДОЛГАЯ СЧАСТЛИВАЯ ЖИЗНЬ - DOLGAYA SCHASTLIVAYA ZHIZN (A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE), Boris Khlebnikov, Russia, 77 min
DOM ÖVER DÖD MAN (THE LAST SENTENCE), Jan Troell, Sweden, 120 min
EPIZODA U ZIVOTU BERACA ZELJEZA (AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER), Danis Tanović, Bosnia & Herzegovina/France/Slovenia, 74 min
LA GRANDE BELLEZZA (THE GREAT BEAUTY), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France , 140 min
GRENZGÄNGER (CROSSING BOUNDARIES), Florian Flicker, Austria, 88 min
GRZELI NATELI DGEEBI (IN BLOOM), Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross, Germany/Georgia/France, 104 min
HANNAH ARENDT, Margarethe von Trotta, Germany/Luxembourg/France/Israel, 110 min
HOŘÍCÍ KEŘ (BURNING BUSH), Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic, 234 min
IMAGINE, Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland/France/Portugal, 105 min
LO IMPOSIBLE (THE IMPOSSIBLE), Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain, 114 min
L'INCONNU DU LAC (STRANGER BY THE LAKE), Alain Guiraudie, France, 110 min
ИЗМЕНА - IZMENA (BETRAYAL), Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia, 115 min
KAPRINGEN (A HIJACKING), Tobias Lindholm, Denmark, 99 min
KON-TIKI, Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg, Norway/Denmark/UK/Germany/Sweden, 113 min
KRUGOVI (CIRCLES), Srdan Golubović, Serbia/Germany/France/Croatia/Slovenia, 112 min
החלל את לאםל - LEMALE ET HA’HALAL (FILL THE VOID), Rama Burshtein, Israel, 90 min
הגבעה מעל - MEHAL HAGIVA (A STRANGE COURSE OF EVENTS). Raphaël Nadjari, Israel/France, 98 min
MÔJ PES KILLER (MY DOG KILLER), Mira Fornay, Slovakia/Czech Republic, 90 min
OH BOY!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany, 83 min
OIKOPEDO 12 (BLOCK 12), Kyriacos Tofarides, Cyprus/Greece, 94 min
ONLY GOD FORGIVES, Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark/France, 90 min
PARADIES: GLAUBE (PARADISE: FAITH), Ulrich Seidl, Austria/Germany/France, 113 min
POZITIA COPILULUI (CHILD’S POSE), Călin Peter Netzer, Romania, 112 min
ROSIE, Marcel Gisler, Switzerland, 106 min
THE SELFISH GIANT, Clio Barnard, UK, 90 min
SOM DU SER MEG (I BELONG), Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway, 112 min
SVECENIKOVA DJECA (THE PRIEST'S CHILDREN), Vinko Brešan, Croatia/Serbia, 93 min
SYNGUÉ SABOUR, PIERRE DE PATIENCE (THE PATIENCE STONE), Atiq Rahimi, France/Germany/Afghanistan, 102 min
W IMIĘ (IN THE NAME OF), Małgośka Szumowska, Poland, 96 min
WHAT RICHARD DID, Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland, 87 min

To read info about each film go here. Have seen quite a few but the best is that was reminded about many that I have forgotten. Great! But perhaps what calls more my attention is that there are not many films by "established" directors as with a few remarkable exceptions, most directors with films in the list are still building their careers.

70th Venice International Film Festival Award Winners

The post has become final and if you wish to read the top awards at the official site please go here while most of the other awards can be found here.

Was not able to watch live the closing ceremony which is annoying as did see the opening ceremony but perhaps what called my attention are the many twitter comments about the low press coverage of the awards which indeed suggests that this year fest was less "interesting" than let's say, last year. If you consider what I just commented then is NO Big surprise that top award went to a documentary, an Italian documentary. Still there are a couple of films that definitively are great must be seen for me: Philomena and Via Castellana Bandiera. Great.

VENEZIA70

Golden Lion for Best Film: Sacro Gra, Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France (documentary)

Grand Jury Prize: Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs), Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan and France

Silver Lion for Best Director: Alexandros Avranas for Miss Violence, Greece

Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Elena Cotta in Via Castellana Bandiera, Emma Dante, Italy and Switzerland
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Themis Panou in Miss Violence, Alexandros Avranas, Greece
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Tye Sheridan in Joe, David Gordon Green, USA

Osella for Best Screenplay: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France

Special Jury Prize: Die Frau des Polizisten, Philip Gröning, Germany

Lion of the Future – Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film: White Shadow, Noaz Deshe, Tanzania, Italy and Germany (from Settimana Internazionale della Critica)

Orrizzonti Awards
Best Film: Eastern Boys, Robin Campillo, France
Best Director: Uberto Pasolini for Still Life, UK and Italy
Special Jury Prize: Ruin, Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Australia
Special Jury Prize for Innovation: Mahi Va Gorbeh, Shahram Mokri, Iran
Best Short Film: Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, India

Venezia Classici Awards
Best Documentary: Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater, Gabe Klinger, France, Portugal and USA
Best Restored Film: La proprietà non è più un furto, Elio Petri, 1973

European Short Film Award: Houses With Small Windows, Bülent Öztürk, Belgium

Autonomous Sections

10th Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days
Europa Cinemas Label: La Belle Vie (The Good Life), Jean Denizot, France
Special Mention: Alienation, Milko Lazarov, Bulgaria
Premio al Film evento delle Giornate degli Autori 2013 (International Award): Kill Your Darlings, John Krokidas, USA

28th Settimana Internazionale Della Critica - Venice International Film Critics Week
Raro Video Audience Award: Zoran, il mio nipote scemo (Zoran, My Nephew the Idiot), Matteo Oleotto, Italy and Slovenia

Collateral Awards

FIPRESCI
Best Film from Venezia70: Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm), Xavier Dolan, Canada and France
Best Film from Orizzonti and International Critics' Week: Anna Odell for Återträffen (The Reunion), Sweden

CICAE Award: Still Life, Uberto Pasolini, UK and Italy

SIGNIS Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Special Mention: Ana Arabia, Amos Gitai, Israel and France

FEDEORA Awards (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean)
Venezia70
Best Euro-Mediterranean Film: Miss Violence, Alexandros Avranas, Greece
Giornate Degli Autori
Best Film: Bethlehem, Yuval Adler, Israel, Belgium and Germany
Best Young Director: Milko Lazarov for Alienation, Bulgaria
Special Mention: La Belle Vie (The Good Life), Jean Denizot, France
Settimana Internazionale della Critica
Best Film: Razredni sovražnik (Class Enemy), Rok Biček, Slovenia
Best Cinematography: Inti Briones for Las Niñas Quispe (The Quispe Girls), Sebastián Sepúlveda, Chile, France and Argentina
Special Mention: Anna Odell for Återträffen (The Reunion), Sweden

Online Critics Award
Mouse d'Oro for Best Film in Competition: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Special Mention: Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs), Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan
Mouse d'Argento for Best Film out of competition: At Berkeley, Frederick Wiseman, USA (documentary)
Special Mention: Die andere heimat – Cronik einer sehnsucht, Edgar Reitz, Germany and France

Francesco Pasinetti Award
Best film: Still life, Uberto Pasolini, UK and Italy
Best Actors: Elena Cotta, Alba Rohrwacher e Antonio Albanese
Special Mention: Maria Rosaria Omaggio in Walesa. Man of Hope, Andrzej Wajda, Poland
Special Mention: Il terzo tempo, Enrico Maria Artale, Italy

Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola Award: Sacro Gra, Gianfranco Rosi, Italy (documentary)
Cinema for Unicef Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
La Navicella - Venezia Cinema Award:
Queer Lion: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France

ArcaCinemaGiovani Award
Best Film Venezia70: Miss Violence, Alexandros Avranas, Greece
Best Italian Film Venezia70: L'Arte della Felicità, Alessandro Rak, Italy

FEDIC Award: Zoran, il mio nipote scemo (Zoran, My Nephew the Idiot), Matteo Oleotto, Italy and Slovenia
Special Mention: The Zero Theorem, Terry Gilliam, USA and Romania

Lina Mangiacapre Award: Via Castellana Bandiera, Emma Dante, Italy and Switzerland
Special Mention: Traitors, Sean Gullette, USA and Morocco
Special Mention: All female cast in Ukrania Ne Bordel (Ukraine is Not a Brothel), Kitty Green, Australia and Ukraine

Future Digital Award: Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón, USA and UK
Special Mention: The Zero Theorem, Terry Gilliam, USA and Romania

UK-Italy Creative Industries Award - Best Innovative Budget
Il Terzo Tempo, Enrico Maria Artale, Italy
Medeas, Andrea Pallaoro, Italy, Mexico and USA
Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, India (short)

Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Youth Jury Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Special Mention: Via Castellana Bandiera, Emma Dante, Italy and Switzerland

Soundtrack Stars Award
Best Sound: Via Castellana Bandiera, Emma Dante, Italy and Switzerland
Special award Best Contemporary Actor: Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ambiente WWF Award: Amazonia, Thierry Ragobert, Brazil and France (documentary)
Brian Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
CICT-UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Award: Joe, David Gordon Green, USA
Cinema for Unicef Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Award: Joe, David Gordon Green, USA
Civitas Vitae Award: Still Life, Uberto Pasolini, UK and Italy
Fondazione Rotella Award: Gianni Amelio for L'Intrepido, Italy
Gillo Pontecorvo Arcobaleno Latino Award: Con Il Fiato Sospeso, Costanza Quatriglio, Italy (short)
Green Drop Award: Ana Arabia, Amos Gitai, Israel and France
INTERFILM Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Lanterna Magica Award (GCS): L'Intrepido, Gianni Amelio, Italy
Open Award: Venezia Salva, Serena Nono, Italy
Padre Nazareno Taddei Award: Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France
Schermi di qualità Award: Zoran, il mio nipote scemo (Zoran, My Nephew the Idiot), Matteo Oleotto, Italy and Slovenia

Career Golden Lion: William Friedkin
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo Robert Bresson Award: Amos Gitai
Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2013 prize: Ettore Scola
L'Oreal Paris per il Cinema Award: Eugenia Costantini
Persol Award: Andrzej Wajda
Premio Bianchi: Enzo d’Alò
Premio Gillo Pontecorvo Arte e Industria: Walter Veltroni

7th Queer Lion Lineup and Winner

A few minutes ago the winner was announced and to my surprise this year Queer Lion winner is a film that I'm really looking forward to watch, which is highly unusual!

... and the winner is:

Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France (G)

The jury, headed by Angelo Acerbi and composed by Queer Lion founder Daniel N. Casagrande and Marco Busato, general delegate of cultural association CinemArte, unanimously awarded the prize "For the ability of giving proper relevance to issues such as homosexuality, AIDS and homophobia in a movie focused on the painful topic of a 50 years long search for a son, and for emphasizing, with the light touch of a comedy, how an humble woman with a deep Catholic faith can show outright and loving acceptance for the essential, important aspects of the sexual identity and same-sex family of a 'just re-discovered' son."

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8/21
Today finally was published the list of the nine (9) films that will compete for the 2013 Queer Lion and here they are with a small summary for each film.

Venezia 70 (Main Competition)
Philomena, Stephen Frears, UK, USA and France (G)
Falling pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena was sent to the convent of Roscrea to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” When her baby was only a toddler, he was taken away by the nuns for adoption in America. Philomena spent the next fifty years searching for him but with no success. Then she met Martin Sixsmith, a world-weary political journalist who happened to be intrigued by her story. Together they set off to America on a journey that would not only reveal the extraordinary story of Philomena’s son (who had become a great lawyer, front-man for the Republican Party under Reagan’s and Bush Sr.’s administrations; but who was also gay, forced by his party’s homophobic views to lead a double life, until his tragic departure, at 43, due to AIDS), but also create an unexpectedly close bond between Philomena and Martin. The film is a compelling narrative of human love and loss that ultimately celebrates life.

Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm), Xavier Dolan, Canada and France (G)
Tom, a young advertising copywriter, travels to the country for a funeral. There, he’s shocked to find out no one knows who he is, nor who he was to the deceased, whose brother soon sets the rules of a twisted game. In order to protect the family’s name and grieving mother, Tom now has to play the peacekeeper in a household whose obscure past bodes even greater darkness for his “trip” to the farm. Stockholm syndrome, deception, grief and secretive savageries pervade this brief and brutal pilgrimage through the warped and ugly truth.

Via Castellana Bandiera (A Street in Palermo),Emma Dante, Italy, Switzerland and France (L)
It’s a Sunday afternoon. The sirocco is blowing pitilessly in Palermo when Rosa and Clara, a lesbian couple, lose their way in the streets of the city and end up in a sort of alley: Via Castellana Bandiera. At the same moment, another car driven by Samira, crammed with members of the Calafiore family, arrives from the opposite direction and enters the same street. Neither Rosa at the wheel of her Multipla, nor Samira, the old and stubborn woman driving a Punto, is willing to give way to the other. A wholly female duel punctuated by the refusal to drink, eat and sleep; more obstinate than the sun of Palermo and more stubborn than the ferocity of the men who surround them. For, as in every duel, it is a question of life or death.

Orizzonti
Eastern Boys, Robin Campillo, France (G)
They come from all over Eastern Europe: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova... The oldest ones appear no more than 25; as for the youngest, there is no way of telling their age. They spend all their time hanging around the Gare du Nord train station in Paris. They might be male prostitutes. Daniel, a discreet man in his early fifties, has his eye on one of them, Marek. Gathering his courage, he speaks to him. The young man agrees to come and visit Daniel the following day at his place, with wholly unpredictable consequences. Daniel will have to learn to fight to defend himself and the youth from the violent reaction of the group, led by a brutal man who is determined not to loosen his grip.

Piccola Patria, Alessandro Rossetto, Italy (L)
Two young women, a hot and stifling summer, the desire to get away from a small provincial town. Luisa is full of life, uninhibited, unconventional; Renata is dark, angry, in need of love. The lives of the two women tell a story of blackmail, of betrayed love, of violence: Luisa uses Bilal, her Albanian boyfriend, Renata uses Luisa’s body to pull the strings of her vendetta. Both want to leave the small community that raised them, among local festivals and nationalist rallies, exhausted families and new generations of migrants targeted by those still feeling threatened. Luisa, Renata and Bilal will run the risk of losing themselves, of losing a precious part of themselves, of losing the people they love, of losing their life.

Giornate degli Autori
3 Bodas de Más (Three Many Weddings), Javier Ruiz Caldera, Spain (G)
Is there anything worse than being invited to your ex-boyfriend´s wedding? Sure! When it happens three times in one month, when you don´t know how to say no, when you are an awkward 30-something who loses it after a couple drinks, when the only person you can convince to be your date is the new intern, and when at one of the weddings you are up for a huge surprise, when it comes to the sentence “you may now kiss the bride”.

Gerontophilia, Bruce LaBruce, Canada (G)
18-year-old Lake has a sweet activist girlfriend, but one day discovers he has an unusual attraction for the elderly. Fate conspires to land him a summer job at a nursing home where he develops a tender relationship with Mr. Peabody. Discovering that the patients are being over-medicated to make them easier to manage, Lake decides to wean him off his medication and help him escape, resulting in a humorous and heartfelt road trip that strengthens their bond.

Julia, J. Jackie Baier, Germany and Lithuania (documentary) (T)
A story of faith and disbelief. Of uprootedness and affiliation. What makes a boy from art school decide to leave home and live as a girl on the streets of Berlin selling her body for money? For more than ten years, photographer and filmmaker J. Jackie Baier followed transsexual Julia K. from her birthplace, Klaipeda in Lithuania, to her tough life on the streets as a hooker, outlaw and nonconformist who never signed any social contract.

Kill Your Darlings, John Krokidas, USA (G)
Kerouac. Burroughs. Ginsberg. Who were they, though, before they became virtual icons of the counterculture movement? In 1944, Jack Kerouac was a washed-up college running back who had lasted all of eight days in the U.S. Navy. William S. Burroughs was a medical school dropout, former door-to-door insect exterminator and budding drug addict, hanging on the fringes of the New York bohemian scene after following a pair of friends from his native St. Louis, Lucien Carr and David Kammerer, to Manhattan. Allen Ginsberg was a nervous, straitlaced freshman at Columbia University, easy prey of Carr’s seduction games and his obsession with the charismatic Kammerer. This is the story of three future beats who fell in with each other, and a brutal murder that capped off their youthful partnership.

Settimana della Critica
L’Armée du salut (Salvation Army), Abdellah Taïa, France (G)
In Casablanca, the young Abdellah spends his days at home, living a relationship of conflicts and complicity with his father. In the city streets, he has occasional sexual intercourses with men. During a holiday, his older and venerated brother Slimane abandons him. Ten years later. Abdellah lives with his Swiss lover, Jean. He leaves Morocco and goes to Geneva, where he decides to break up and to start a new life alone. He takes shelter in a house of the Salvation Army, where a Moroccan man sings a song of his idol Abdel Halim Hafez for him.

Furthermore, NOT competing, but worthy of being mentioned for their secondary LGBT contents, are Stephen Frears’s Philomena (Venezia 70), Paul Schrader’s The Canyons (Out of Competition), Cherien Dabis’s May in the Summer (Venice Days), Moisés Sepúlveda’s Las Analfabetas (International Critics’ Week). And we cannot  forget mentioning the restored version of Nagisa Ôshima’s masterpiece Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

As usual, during the Festival the jury might decide to include in the competition movies not mentioned in this list.

On Saturday, September 7th, at Cinema Astra in Lido, Special Event with the screening of Il rosa nudo by Giovanni Coda, the Queer Lion 2013 award ceremony, and the debate Lotta all’omofobia: quali strumenti? (Fighting Homophobia: How?) at the presence of Sen. Josefa Idem, M.P. Alessandro Zan, and president of Gaynet Franco Grillini.

Up to this moment the jury has three members Angelo Acerbi (president), Daniel N. Casagrande and Marco Busato.

Here is a recently published document that has a bit of the award history plus several award winners in past editions. Available only in Italian.

2013 European Film Awards - People's Choice Award

This year the 26th European Film Awards will go back to Berlin and will take place on December 7th. The most interesting and often must be watch longlist of European films is scheduled to be unveiled in "the beginning of September" so I assume that will be soon.

As always the nominations will be announced on November 9th at the Seville European Film Festival. This is the schedule for the coming months but today the list of nominated films for the People's Choice Award was announced and there are some great films in it, still I'm totally biased towards Searching for Sugar Man a doc that absolutely gets my vote, yay!

IF you vote you will get a chance to win a trip to the awards in Berlin. Good Luck!

These are the 11 nominated films:

Anna Karenina, Joe Wright, UK
Los Amantes Pasajeros (I'm So Excited!), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
La Cage Dorée (The Gilded Cage), Ruben Alves, Portugal
Djúpið (The Deep), Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland and Norway
Lo Imposible (The Impossible), J. A. Bayona, Spain
Kon-Tiki, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany and Sweden
Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul, UK and Sweden
Den Skaldede Frisør (Love is All You Need), Susanne Bier, Denmark

To vote go here.