"La vie en rose" and "Le secret" top Cesar nominations

France's upcoming Cesar nominations will see two heavyweights battle it out, as "La vie en rose" and "Le secret" are both nominated for a staggering 11 awards each, going head to head notably in the Best Film and Best Actresses categories.

Nominations for screenplays are:

Best Original Screenplay
Olivier Dahan - La Vie en Rose
Julie Delpy - 2 Days in Paris
Abdellatif Kechiche - The secret of the Grain
Anne le Ny - Ceux qui restent
Laurent Tirard and Grégoire Vigneron - Moliere

Best Adapted Screenplay
Claude Berri - Hunting and Gathering
Christine Carrière - Darling
Ronald Harwood - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Claude Miller and Nathalie Carter - Un secret
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud - Persepolis

The awards ceremony will be held on February 22.

Bafta award nominations

This year's Bafta award nominations have just been announced.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

AMERICAN GANGSTER – Steven Zaillian
JUNO – Diablo Cody
THE LIVES OF OTHERS – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
MICHAEL CLAYTON – Tony Gilroy
THIS IS ENGLAND – Shane Meadows

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ATONEMENT – Christopher Hampton
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY – Ronald Harwood
THE KITE RUNNER – David Benioff
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN – Joel Coen/Ethan Coen
THERE WILL BE BLOOD – Paul Thomas Anderson

As usual, the nominees are largely US-based. I'll be rooting for "The Lives of Others", although there are enough good scripts in there for the award to fall into deserving hands. For the full list of nominess, visit the Bafta site.

Script courses and co-production in Belgium

Although it is not known as a source of overtly commercial cinema, Belgium does have a unique position by being bilingual (French/Dutch) and reliant on international co-productions to get those stories told. So it has always had an international perspective. The overwhelming majority of movies are released in their mother tongue with subtitles for example.

The French-speaking writers' group ASA (of which I am a member) have three events coming up. On Tuesday January 15, writer and script doctor Luc Janssens will be taking a bold look at the role of scripts, connections with the audience, what constitutes a "good" character and other questions using "African Queen" as a basis.

I suspect this will be a condensed version of a longer cycle he will be running on the five Saturdays between February 2 and March 1.

On January 26 he will be using his script for the cartoon "Asterix et les Vikings" as the basis for a discussion. Janssens is a vastly experienced and practical writer/teacher. So these promise to be interesting events. Details on the ASA site.

Meanwhile, Media Desk is organising a round table for Belgian and UK producers that are looking for partners on February 28 in Brussels. Details from Jeanne Brunfaut on 00/32/(0)2/413 22 71 in Brussels or Media Desk UK.

Foreign-language films in Bafta awards

This year´s Bafta awards feature a number of heavyweights in the foreign-language section. The nominees are "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", "The Kite Runner", "The Lives of Others", "Lust, Caution" and "La Vie en Rose". One of the surprises is that "4 months..." is nowhere to be seen. The event will take place on February 10 in London.