European Film Academy

It is with great pleasure that the European Film Academy and EFA Productions gGmbH announce the titles of the 48 films on this year’s selection list, the list of films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2009! With 25 countries represented, the list once again illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.
In [...]

directed by: Marco Bellocchio
written by: Marco Bellocchio & Daniela Ceselli
produced by: Mario Gianani
Director of photography: Daniele Cipri’
Main cast:
Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Ida Dalser)
Filippo Timi (Benito Mussolini)
Michela Cescon (Rachele Guidi)
Fausto Russo Alesi (Riccardo Paicher)
Piergiorgio Bellocchio (Pietro Fedele)
When Ida meets Mussolini in Milan, he is the editor of L’Avanti! and an ardent Socialist who intends to guide the masses [...]

directed by:Jacques Audiard
written by:: Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain based on an original idea by Abdel Raouf Dafri after an original screenplay by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit
produced by: Chic Filmks, Page 114, Why Not Productions
Director of photography: Stéphane Fontaine
Main cast:
Tahar Rahim (Malik El Djebena)
Niels Arestrup (César Luciani)
Abdel Bencherif (Ryad)
Reda Kateb (Jordi le gitan)
Hichem [...]

directed by: Uli Edel
written & produced by: Bernd Eichinger
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Main cast:
Moritz Bleibtreu (Andreas Baader)
Martina Gedeck (Ulrike Meinhoff)
Johanna Wokalek (Gudrun Ensslin)
Niels Bruno Schmidt (Jan Carl Raspe)
Jan Josef Liefers (Peter Homann)
Nadja Uhl (Brigitte Mohnhaupt)
June 1967. Prominent left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) is shocked by reports of a violent demonstration in Berlin, during which [...]

directed by: Ken Loach
written by: Paul Laverty
produced by: Rebecca O’Brien
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Main cast:
Steve Evets (Eric Bishop)
Eric Cantona (Himself)
John Henshaw (Meatballs)
Stephanie Bishop (Lily)
Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers…
His wife has gone, his stepsons are out of control and the house was chaotic even before a cement mixer appeared in the front [...]

written & directed by Andrzej Wajda
produced by Michał Kwieciński, Leszek Andrzej Wyszyński & Waldemar Dąbrowski
Director of photography: Paweł Edelman
Main cast:
Krystyna Janda (Mrs. Marta)
Paweł Szajda (Boguś)
Jan Englert (Doctor)
Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak (Marta’s Friend)
A middle-aged woman MARTA (Krystyna Janda), wife of a small town doctor, doesn’t know about her terminal illness. One day Marta meets a much younger [...]

written & directed by:Corneliu Porumboiu
produced by: Marcela Ursu
Director of photography: Marius Panduru
Main cast:
Dragos Bucur (Cristi)
Vlad Ivanov (Anghelache)
Irina Saulescu (Anca)
Ion Stoica (Nelu)
Cristi is a policeman who refuses to arrest a young man who offers hashish to two of his school mates. “Offering” is punished by the law. Cristi believes that the law will change, he does not [...]

directed by: Anne Fontaine
written by: Anne & Camille Fontaine
produced by: Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne & Simon Arnal
Director of photography: Christophe Beaucarne
Main cast:
Audrey Tautou (Gabrielle Chanel)
Benoît Poelvoorde (Etienne Balsan)
Alessandro Nivola (Boy Capel)
Marie Gillain (Adrienne Chanel)
Emmanuelle Devos (Emilienne)
A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits [...]

directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
written by: Rasmus Heisterberg & Nikolaj Arcel
produced by: Sören Staermose
Director of photography: Eric Kress
Main cast:
Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander)
Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomqvist)
Sven Bertil Taube (Henrik Vanger)
Peter Andersson (Niels Bjurman)
Peter Faber (Martin Vanger)
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her [...]

written & directed by Elia Suleiman
produced by: Michael Gentile & Elia Suleiman
Director of photography: Marc-André Batigne
Main cast:
Elia Suleiman (Elia )
Saleh Bakri (Fuad)
Leila Muammar (Thuraya)
THE TIME THAT REMAINS is a semi biographic film divided in four historic episodes, about a family, spanning from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired of Elia suleiman’s father’s diary [...]

written & directed by: Viktor Oszkár Nagy
produced by: Péter Miskolczi
Director of photography: Tamás Dobos
Main cast:
Tamás Ravasz (Son)
János Derzsi (Father)
Andrea Nagy (Ági)
The Father is released from prison, resolving to start a new life and try to pass on some form of value system to his son. He buys a plot of land, on which he plans [...]

directed by Václav Marhoul
written by Václav Marhoul (based on The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane)
produced by: Václav Marhoul
Director of photography: Vladimír Smutný
Main cast:
Jan Meduna (private Pospíchal)
Petr Vaněk (private Lieberman)
Robert Nebřenský (corporal Kohák)
North Africa, II. WW, Fall 1941. Jiri Pospichal, twenty years old, signs up as a volunteer in the Czechoslovak army. His naive ideas [...]

directed & directed by: Eitan Green
produced by: Eilon Ratzkovsky, Yossi Uzrad, Yochanan Kredo & Koby Gal-Raday
Director of photography: Shay Goldman
Main cast:
Yuval Segal (Yuda)
Dorit Lev Ari (Dina)
Ron Jaegerman (Udi)
IT ALL BEGINS AT SEA is a drama with a few comic relieves, that tells 3 stories of the same 3 characters.
In the first story, a 6 years [...]

written & directed by Małgośka Szumowska
produced by Raimond Goebel & Karl Baumgartner
Director of photography: Michał Englert
Main cast: Julia Jentsch (Julia Szczesna)
Julia is a beloved daughter and wife and she is a successful artist-photographer. It’s fair to say that Julia is happy in her life. Suddenly, everything collapses. In [...]

directed by: Philippe Lioret
written by: Philippe Lioret, Olivier Adam & Emmanuel Courcol
produced by: Christophe Rossignon
Director of photography: Laurent Dailland
Main cast:
Vincent Lindon (Simon)
Firat Ayverdi (Bilal)
Audrey Dana (Marion)
Derya Ayverdi (Mina)
Thierry Godard (Bruno)
Selim Akgül (Zorban)
Bilal, a young 17 year old Kurdish boy, has travelled through Middle East and Europe to join his girlfriend, freshly immigrated to England. But [...]

directed by: Igaal Niddam
written by: Igaal Niddam, David Belhassen & Roy Katsiri
produced by: Nasser Bakhti
Director of photography: Claudio Steinberg
Main cast:
Baruch Brener (Aaron)
Micha Selectar (Dan)
Orna Fitoussi (Shelly)
Sharon M-Schemech (Yaël)
Two brothers that everything drives apart except the fact that they’re both Jews, meet again in Israel after years of silence. Dan chooses to work on the land, [...]

directed by:Yeşim Ustaoğlu
written by:Yeşim Ustaoğlu & Sema Kaygusuz
produced by: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Muhammet Çakıral, Serkan Çakarer, Behrooz Hashemian, Setareh Farsi, Natacha Devillers, Catherine Burniaux, Michael Weber & Tobias Pausinger
Director of photography: Jacques Besse
Main cast:
Tsilla Chelton (Nusret)
Derya Alabora (Nesrin)
Övül Avkiran (Güzin)
Onur Unsal (Murat)
Osamn Sonant (Mehmet)
When three forty-something siblings in Istanbul receive a call one night that their [...]

written & directed by: Kamen Kalev
produced by: Fredrik Zander, Stefan Piriyov & Kamen Kalev
Director of photography: Julian Atassanov
Main cast:
Christo Christov (Itso)
Ovanes Torosian (Georgi)
Saadet Isil Aksoy (Isil)
Two brothers who’ve lost all contact are suddenly brought together when they have opposite roles in a racist beating: while Georgi who’s recently joined a neo-Nazi group participates in the [...]

directed by: Jan Troell
written by: Niklas Rådström, co-writers: Jan Troell & Agneta Ulfsäter Troell
produced by: Thomas Stenderup
Director of photography: Jan Troell & Mischa Gavrjusjov
Main cast:
Maria Heiskanen (Maria Larsson)
Mikael Persbrandt (Sigfrid Larsson)
Jesper Christensen (Pedersen, Piff Paff Puff)
Callin Öhrvall (Maja, 15-22 years)
During the early 1900s, Maria, a young working-class woman, wins a camera in a lottery. Her [...]

written & directed by: Lars von Trier
produced by: Meta Louise Foldager
Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Main cast:
Willem Dafoe (He)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (She)
A grieving couple retreat to ’Eden’, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to [...]