European Film NOMINATIONS 2011
The six films nominated for EFA’s European Film Award are a clutch of world beaters, with themes that span politics, history, human relationships and even cinema itself
IN A BETTER WORLD (Hævnen) (Denmark) Dir Susanne Bier Scr Anders Thomas Jensen Prod Sisse Graum Jørgensen Winner of both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best foreign- language film this year, Susanne Bier’s In A Better World continues its stellar awards run with four nominations at the European Film Awards, including for European Film and European Director and a nomination for the People’s Choice Award. Moving between Africa and sub-
urban Denmark, Bier’s ambitious drama explores the choices between pacifism and violence that are faced in so-called civilised soci- ety as well as in extreme situations in a refugee camp. Mikael Pers- brandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Markus Rygaard and William Johnk Nielsen star.
“In A Better World sets out to
explore the limitations we encoun- ter in trying to control our society as well as our personal lives,” explains Bier, whose previous work includes acclaimed films such as After The Wedding (Efter Bryllup- pet), Brothers (Brødre) and the Eng- lish-language Things We Lost In The Fire. “It asks whether our own ‘advanced’ culture is the model for a better world, or whether the same disarray found in lawlessness is lurking beneath the culture of our civilisation. Are we immune to chaos, or obliviously teetering on the verge of disorder?” Produced by Zentropa Enter-
tainments, the film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was released in North America by Sony Pictures Classics. The film has grossed ¤3.5m in Denmark.
THE ARTIST (France) Dir/scr Michel Hazanavicius Prods Thomas Langmann, Emmanuel Montamat French director Michel Hazanavi- cius resurrects the art of old-time silent film-making in this black- and-white crowdpleaser that has been charming critics and audi- ences since its world premiere in Competition at Cannes earlier this year. Jean Dujardin — who picked up
the best actor prize on the Croisette — stars as George Valen- tin, an actor who sees his fame overtaken by the advent of talking pictures, and by the young Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). The film, which has scored four
24 n European Film Awards 2011
European Film Awards nomina- tions, has a strong supporting cast that includes John Goodman as a flustered studio executive, James Cromwell, Missi Pyle and Pene- lope Ann Miller. Hazanavicius, whose credits
include the successful OSS spoof spy films, immersed himself in silent era cinema in preparation. “It makes you tell the story in a
very special way,” he says of the genre. “It’s not up to the screen- writer, nor to the actors to tell the story — it really is up to the direc- tor. In this genre everything is in the image, in the organisation of the signals you’re sending to the audience.”
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