"Vera Drake" and "Bad Education" up for European awards

The nominees for the European Film Awards run like a "who's who" of the European arthouse scene. Top films are: Lukas Moodysson's "Ett Hal I Mitt Hjärta (A Hole In My Heart)", Sweden/Denmark; Fatih Akin's "Gegen Die Wand (Head-On)", Germany; Almodovar's controversial "La Mala Educacion (Bad Education)", Spain; Christophe Barratier's runaway success "Les Choristes (The Chorus)", France/Switzerland; Alejandro Amenábar's "Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside)", Spain/France/Italy; and Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake", UK/France. Almodovar and Akin are also nominated as best directors. With the exception of "Les Choristes", the films each deal with pretty harsh society problems.

Screenwriter nominees (that again include Almodovar and Akin) are as follows:

Fatih Akin for "Gegen Dir Wand (Head-On)"
Pedro Almodovar for "La Mala Educacion (Bad Education)"
Alejandro Amenabar & Mateo Gil for "Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside)"
Jean-Luc Godard for "Notre Musique"
Agnès Jaoui & Jean-Pierre Bacri for "Comme une image (Look At Me)"
Paul Laverty for "Ae Fond Kiss".

The European Film Awards will be held in Barcelona on December 11, 2004 and broadcast on some 20 stations around Europe including the UK's ITV. For details, click here.

Relevant links: Almodovar on Amazon US
Almodovar on Amazon France
Jean-Luc Godard on Amazon US