European Film Awards 2009: Rules & Relevance
Maria Heiskanen in Everlasting Moments
European Film Awards 2009 – Nominations: Part I
Among the eligible films and performers that failed to nab a mention were Giovanna Mezzogiorno for Vincere, Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel, Maren Ade’s Everyone Else, Ulrich Tukur for The White Ribbon, Martina Gedeck for The Baader Meinhof Complex, and Michael Fassbender for Fish Tank.
Also, Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Nina Hoss for Jerichow, Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments, Maria Heiskanen for Everlasting Moments, Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective, Andrzej Wajda’s Sweet Rush, and Philippe Lioret’s Welcome.
Now, the curious thing about the European Film Awards is that the awards’ timing and eligibility rules (some of which have varied throughout the years) make many of the nominations seem like old news. Indeed, as per current European Film Academy rules, in order to be eligible for the awards a motion picture must have had "their first official screening" after July 1 of the previous year (the submission deadline in 2009 was June 15) — whereas in Hollywood a movie can be released in Los Angeles on Dec. 31 and be in the running for the Oscars a mere five or six weeks later.
Apart from film festivals, which take place throughout the year, film awards season around the world generally begins in mid-October and continues all the way into mid-April or whereabouts. Although the European Film Awards have been a relatively important part of the awards hoopla for more than two decades, their relevance could be considerably enhanced if they better represented the European film output in each given year.
For instance, three of the best European picture nominees — Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, and Let the Right One In — have already had their national and/or international awards season runs, and so have three other nominees in the top categories, Séraphine (above), Mid-August Lunch, and The Baader Meinhof Complex. Having so many "old" films show up in the European Film Awards roster makes the awards themselves look more than a little outdated. Even if, say, a popular hit like Slumdog Millionaire ends up taking home a bevy of trophies, that’ll feel anticlimactic as the film’s "awards momentum" ended when it won the best picture Oscar about eight months ago.
Like the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, the European Film Awards would undoubtedly increase their clout if the European Academy pushed their awards ceremony into late January or even February so as to include all eligible films released in a calendar year. That way, many more among the nominated films would gain awards momentum — and all the extra publicity attached to it — especially English-language productions, released later in the year so as to boost their Oscar chances.
It also wouldn’t hurt if non-European talent working on European productions — in case one must stick to regionally made films — were eligible for the nominations as well. I mean, imagine if the Hollywood Academy had a long-standing rule stipulating that only Americans working on US-made productions could qualify for its awards. Had that been the case, perhaps half (or more) of the nominees and winners of the past 81 years — most among those European-born talent, from Emil Jannings and Greta Garbo to Kate Winslet and Danny Boyle — would have been deemed ineligible.
The winners of the 2009 European Film Awards will be announced in Bochum, Germany, on Dec. 12. German comedy performer Anke Engelke will host the event.
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European Film Awards 2009: Nominations
Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); Dev Patel, Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire (middle); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (bottom)
Six films are vying for the top prize at the 2009 European Film Awards. They are:
Andrea Arnold’s [...] Continue Reading…
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European Film Awards 2009
2009 European Film Awards
2009 European Film Award nominations: Nov. 7, 2009
2009 European Film Award winners: Bochum, Germany, on Dec. 12, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (top); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (middle); [...] Continue Reading…
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Chicago Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
Baby Jane by Billy Clift (top); Shirley Knight, Liz Jahren in Not Fade Away (middle); Homewrecker by Paul Hart (bottom)
Reeling 2009, this year’s edition of the Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival, kicked off on Thu., Nov. 5, [...] Continue Reading…
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AFI FEST 2009: THE LAST STATION, AFTER.LIFE
Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti in The Last Station
AFI FEST 2009, Sat., Nov. 7 at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica.
AFI FEST 2009 comes to a close with the following screenings:
[...] Continue Reading…
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AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009: Hollywood/Santa Monica, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2009
Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank focuses on a working-class teenager (Katie Jarvis) frustrated that her mother has found a new beau (Michael Fassbender); Javier Rebollo’s Woman Without Piano is [...] Continue Reading…
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AFI FEST 2009: POLICE, ADJECTIVE; TO DIE LIKE A MAN
To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues (top); Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (bottom)
AFI FEST 2009 continues in a more compact version on Friday and Saturday at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in [...] Continue Reading…
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Grace Kelly: TO CATCH A THIEF, THE SWAN
Grace Kelly on TCM: Part I
Thanks to Kelly’s Oscar win, The Country Girl is interesting as a historical curiosity — it’s the sort of "gutsy" and "realistic" film adaptation of a respected stage play that was very popular [...] Continue Reading…
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Grace Kelly on TCM
Stating the obvious: most people take great pleasure in idealizing their idols — which is why idols are idols.
Whether we’re talking of gods, saints, prophets, or pop stars, the process is pretty much the same: [...] Continue Reading…
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AFI FEST 2009: A SINGLE MAN, THE SINGULARITY
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore in A Single Man (top); Steve Evets, Eric Cantona in Looking for Eric (bottom)
AFI FEST 2009 highlights on Thursday, Nov. 5:
Robert Barry Ptolemy’s The Singularity sounds fascinating: Futurist Ray Kurzweil discusses the just-around-the-corner [...] Continue Reading…
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AFI FEST 2009: THE ROAD, EASIER WITH PRACTICE
Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road (top); Brian Geraghty in Easier with Practice (bottom)
Tonight, Wed., Nov. 4, at AFI FEST 2009 in Hollywood:
The Road has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz for star Viggo Mortensen, [...] Continue Reading…
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Academy Awards $450,000 to US Film Festivals
True/False Film Fest
In case you think the Academy only hands out Oscars:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Academy Foundation has awarded a total of $450,000 to 24 U.S. film festivals for the 2010 calendar year. [...] Continue Reading…
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Oscar-Winning Filmmakers Mark Jonathan Harris, Tracy Seretean at Academy Screening
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Into the Arms of Stranger: Stories of the Kindertransport, shown as part of the "Oscar’s Docs" series, at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood on [...] Continue Reading…
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Real Horrorshow! Event Photos
"The Sound Behind the Image III: Real Horrorshow!," presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council, which focused on the role of sound in horror films from its beginning through the [...] Continue Reading…
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Shadows of Russia Schedule
Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate
Below is the complete "Shadows of Russia" schedule on Turner Classic Movies:
Wednesday, Jan. 6
Part One: Twilight of the Tsars
8 p.m. [...] Continue Reading…
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Shadows of Russia: Communism on TCM
Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (top); Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford in The Way We Were (bottom)
From the Romanovs’ last stand to Warren Beatty’s first solo directorial effort: On every Wednesday in January 2010, Turner Classic Movies [...] Continue Reading…
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Oscar 2010: Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin to Host Oscar Telecast
Steve Martin in The Pink Panther 2
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will act as co-hosts at the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony, Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman have announced.
Steve Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th Academy Awards [...] Continue Reading…
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The Movies’ Top Five Scariest Living Dead
In The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment not only sees dead people, he hears them as well. Bruce Willis, for his part, sees and hears what he wants to see and hear.
The Day of Dead ended on this meridian [...] Continue Reading…
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THE WAR GAME Review II
THE WAR GAME Review: Part I
Given the spate of nuclear Armageddon films made in the 1960s (e.g., Fail Safe, Planet of the Apes) and up through the early 1980s television production The Day After, it’s remarkable how [...] Continue Reading…
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THE WAR GAME d: Peter Watkins
The War Game (1965)
Direction and Screenplay: Peter Watkins
Narration: Michael Aspel and Peter Graham
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
For anyone who thinks that those 50-pack mega-DVD sets of public domain films put out by several different video companies [...] Continue Reading…
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RICH MAN’S FOLLY – George Bancroft, Frances Dee
Rich Man’s Folly (1931)
Direction: John Cromwell
Screenplay: Grover Jones and Edward E. Paramore Jr.; from Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son
Cast: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, David Durand, Juliette Compton, Dorothy Peterson
Directed by the respected John Cromwell and based [...] Continue Reading…
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THE PONY EXPRESS – Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez
The Pony Express (1925)
Direction: James Cruze
Screenplay: Walter Woods; from Woods and Henry James Forman’s story
Cast: Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez, George Bancroft, Ernest Torrence, Wallace Beery, Al Hart
The Pony Express is a rousing James Cruze Western depicting the founding [...] Continue Reading…
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THE APARTMENT ABOVE d: Leon Trystan
Pietro Wyzej / The Apartment Above (1937)
Direction: Leon Trystan
Screenplay: Emanuel Schlechter, Ludwik Starski, Eugeniusz Bodo
Cast: Eugeniusz Bodo, Helena Grossówna, Józef Orwid
Leon Trystan’s Pietro Wyzej (alternately known in the US as The Apartment Above, Neighbors, and The Neighbor [...] Continue Reading…
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THE RAVEN – Henry B. Walthall – d: Charles Brabin
The Raven (1915)
Direction: Charles Brabin
Screenplay: Charles Brabin; from George Cochran Hazelton’s novel and play The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Warda Howard
Starring Henry B. Walthall, The Raven is an Essanay feature [...] Continue Reading…
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Doha Tribeca Film Festival Awards 2009
Team Qatar by Liz Mermin (top); Hiam Abbass in Najwa Najjar’s Pomegranates and Myrrh (bottom)
Doha Tribeca Film Festival Executive Director Amanda Palmer and Robert De Niro handed out two audience awards, worth US$50,000 each, at the festival’s closing night [...] Continue Reading…
