EUROPEAN FILM 2011
THE ARTIST, France
LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy
HÆVNEN (In a Better World), Denmark
THE KING’S SPEECH, UK
LE HAVRE, Finland/France/Germany
MELANCHOLIA, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2011
Susanne Bier for HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Béla Tarr for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2011:
Kirsten Dunst in MELANCHOLIA
Cécile de France in LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in MELANCHOLIA
Nadezhda Markina in ELENA
Tilda Swinton in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2011:
Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST
Colin Firth in THE KING’S SPEECH
Mikael Persbrandt in HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Michel Piccoli in HABEMUS PAPAM
André Wilms in LE HAVRE
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2011:
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Anders Thomas Jensen for HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN
CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2011:
Manuel Alberto Claro for MELANCHOLIA
Fred Kelemen for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Guillaume Schiffman for THE ARTIST
Adam Sikora for ESSENTIAL KILLING
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2011:
Tariq Anwar for THE KING’S SPEECH
Mathilde Bonnefoy for DREI (Three)
Molly Malene Stensgaard for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2011:
Paola Bizzarri for HABEMUS PAPAM
Antxón Gómez for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Jette Lehmann for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2011:
Ludovic Bource for THE ARTIST
Alexandre Desplat for THE KING’S SPEECH
Alberto Iglesias for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Mihály Vig for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Full list: European Film Awards Nominations
(thanks to J2DR in the Forums)
Hazanavicius and Dujardin took deep pay cuts for The Artist. La Classe Americaine and the newly created JD Prod are listed as producers on the film, so they took very little up-front. I think either Goodman or Cromwell said the team had very little faith in overcoming its format hurdles – they even considered releasing straight to video, and it was made in color from the beginning. All this explain the insane PR.
Polisse is about child abuse but done very airily with humor and positivity. It’s much easier asking people to believe in their hard-working neighborhood cops, the eternal friendship of black-and-white total opposites, than long-dead stars in faraway non-existent Hollywood who’s not even all that glam, nor are “just like us, with our own problems”.)
This seems to be the only mention of Melancholia in the past 2 weeks on this website… no mention of Kirsten, Charlotte, or anything at all related to the film in the Contender Tracker. Is this site disqualifying Melancholia because of von Trier’s outlandish statements?
Forgive me if I’m being naive, but this film has garnered nearly universal acclaim and I believe it could certainly be a contender when awards season rolls around, despite the director’s comments or beliefs.
I mean why isn’t it nominated for best picture, actress, actor and supporting actor?
I wonder why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 wasn’t nominated at this years European Film Awards?!
“You want to know what’s a good hold & legs and good word of mouth?”
No, I want you to explain me how come Rio’s ones were good. Numbers are against you, but nice try of changing the subject.
“It made -10% in week 2 and -29% in week 3 compared to the 1st week, and that despite school holidays this last two weeks.”
Just wrong.
http://www.cinemovies.fr/fiche_info-14863-box.html
You should learn percentages again poor dear.
And just listen to french box office experts, you’ll understand Rio was not such a success, and even a small deception.
http://www.cinefeed.com/index.php/2009/05/07/783-box-office-france-semaine-18-2009http://www.cinefeed.com/index.php/2009/06/11/811-box-office-france-semaine-23-cannes-brille-mais-n-attire-pas-les-spectateurs
The budget for Rio is 23 M.
The one for The Artist is between 9 and 13 (depends on the sources). You seem to have a problem with averages too.
I think you’re seriously dazzled by your opinion on the film. The Artist is certainly not the success of the year, but its score is still honorable.
Oh, and the “Come on guys” conspiracy theory is so easy and déjà-vu… You are better than that.
@NP
The average budget for a French film is between 4 and 5.5 million euro (and with a vast majority under that).
So when you’ve got a film made for 14 million by one of the most important French producer (whose films have made an average of 2.3 entries in the last decade, and who is also the son of one of the most important figure of French cinema, Claude Berry), directed by someone who made two of the most successful comedies of the last 5 years, and starring the best paid French actor (pocketing between 2.5 and 4 million a year), the last adjectives you want to use to describe it are “small” and “fragile”.
Jeremie
If you check this year’s french box office, there are 43 movies that have crossed the line of the 1 million entries.
24 debuted on more than 500 screens (14 on more than 600).
11 others on more than 400 screens.
3 others on more than 300 screens. (french or european commercial movies nobody knew how they would fare, like Case Depart)
And 5 on less than 300 screens : Black Swan (released in February / benefited from the awards buzz and actual awards), The King’s Speech (released at the same period), Les femmes du 6e, Drive and The Artist, all “exceptionnal” films which surprised to an extend and built their box office over quite a long run.
When distributors aim at least at a million entries, they release movies on 400 screens MINIMUM. Below 300 screens, they are merely praying for a miracle to happen for movies they have no visibility.
And yes, I know who Langmann is. And he said that, like his father, he uses the money he gets from big movies made with Gaumont and Pathé to finance smaller and fragile ones like The Artist. He has even put his own personal money in the movie to make it exist, which is very uncommon. So yes, he’s a powerful guy, but he doesn’t have the industrial logic of a studio. He has the leeway to produce and take risks with whatever movie he believes in. Hazanavicius and Dujardin praised him for doing that for The Artist.
Budget for Rio: 20M
http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61099/technique/
Budget for The Artist: 13.47 M
http://cineuropa.org/2011/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&lang=fr&documentID=201597
…
It made -10% in week 2 and -29% in week 3 compared to the 1st week, and that despite school holidays this last two weeks.
You want to know what’s a good hold & legs and good word of mouth? For films which are in the cinema right now?
Polisse had a +10% increase from week 1 to week 2, and is already ahead of The Artist after only 2 weeks.
A Monster in Paris which saw a +28.5% increase week 2 to week 1, and a +53% increase week 3 to week 1. And is now ahead of The Artist despite a softer opening.
Sorry dear.
And oh yes, Rio did not get an intense promotion. Nothing comparable to what The Artist received. It may have had a Drucker afternoon, but it did not get coverage 6 months before its release in every TV show thanks to its Cannes prize, and then again in every single French media the weeks preceding its release. And Dujardin certainly did not do all the 3 JT for Rio. Don’t be ridiculous.
The budget of Rio ne répond plus is about 23 M €.
And The Artist 10 M.
Sorry dear.
I overestimated the copies, my bad. It was from memory. The first week is of course really impressive.
“certainly not benefiting from a great word of mouth and good legs usually associated with such crowd-pleasers (and which helped the two OSS films)”
Wanna look to the fall’s pourcentage each week and compare Rio and The Artist ?
Unless we don’t have the same definition of “word of mouth”.
“None of the OSS films got this kind of hard-core promotion.”
Sorry but Rio did. Dujardin went to Drucker a whole sunday and went to quite a lot other programs of the PAF.
And it hurts me to say that (this is certainly one of my favorite films), but Rio ne répond plus was a little box office deception. With a 23 M budget and the intense promotion, the expectations were more about 3,5 – 4 M.
But I agree, The Artist is not as good as OSS, generally speaking.
Well, and regarding its very extensive promotion, assuming that people who commented on its BO are either French or familiar enough with France to understand it, I’d just recommend watching this segment of Le Petit Journal @ 12.06: http://www.canalplus.fr/c-divertissement/pid3351-c-le-petit-journal.html?vid=529076
It says it all. Dujardin was everywhere to promote it (TV, radio, newspapers and magazine) and you simply couldn’t escape it. None of the OSS films got this kind of hard-core promotion.
OSS 117, Le Caire nid d’espions
(Budget: 14,1M euro)
1st week (19 April 2006):835 334 (557 copies)
BO (after 3 weeks): 1 758 732
Total BO: 2 224 538
OSS 117 : Rio ne répond plus
(Budget: 20M euro)
1st week (15 April 2009): 1 090 269 (588 copies)
BO (after 3 weeks): 2 016 221
Total BO: 2 486 293
The Artist
(Budget: 14M euro)
1st week (12 October 2001)443 269 (295 copies)
Total BO (after 3 weeks): 1 165 893
….
Come on guys, if you’re trying to throw numbers and figures in my face to prove your point, try at least to get the right ones.
I don’t really understand why you’re even trying to argue about it to be honest. The numbers are here, all the French specialist reviews agree, the film’s BO is slightly disappointing so far, and professionals were expecting higher figures. That’s it. Nothing to be ashamed of, but certainly not benefiting from a great word of mouth and good legs usually associated with such crowd-pleasers (and which helped the two OSS films). Just get over it.
Sorry, to conclude I think those three films are successes.
We’ll see about the Oscars.
Jeremie :
Don’t forget that Rio ne réponds plus had an amazing promotion all around the country, quite more impressive I think than the one The Artist just had. It was realesed on almost 1000 screens whereas The artist was on less than 300 for its first week.
There’s a reason why it made more than a million on its first week.
It was also lucky to be the sequel of the best french comedy of the last decade (I know that is subjective but we are a lot to think that).
After the success of Le Caire nid d’espions, there was a real expectation for this movie, you can’t say the one for The Artist was bigger, that’s totaly subjective.
And no matter Thomas Langmann or Altmeyer bros, let’s just talk about budgets : 23 M € against 10.
To conclude
Certainly a better list of films than AMPAS gave last year.
FYI everybody: The EFA two years ago gave most of its awards to “The Ghost Writer” – most deservedly I might add.
AMPAS shut out that film completely that year. Go figure.
So for my money, I’ll pay more attention to the films listed above than to the AMPAS collection.
Just saw “Le Gamin au Velo”, amazing film! Quite honestly, I don´t know even a single film from the great Dardennes that is not at least pretty good. Everybody who got the opportunity to see it at a cinema near your place, don´t hesitate!
This one and “Melancholia” would both be great and deservable winners- but my money is on “Le Gamin au Velo” for Best Picture at the EFA right now!
YES! Melancholia! It got so many nominations, all of which were deserved.
Nobody expected The Artist to do so well.
Not the producers, not the distributor, and probably even not Hazanavicius himself.
The film has been on everybody’s radar before its Cannes selection, and following the OSS films’ success. Then Cannes happened and French media did more coverage about Dujardin’s win (who was invite in May in every single possible talk shows)than for the Palme d’Or winner, Tree of Life. Since then it has been constant advertising, on internet since May (especially specialist website like Allocine) and then followed by more recently by massive displays on buses, billboards, kiosks… etc and non-stop interviews on French TV of the actors and director.
It was expected to be a success. Nobody ever doubted it.
The OSS were not indie movies, they were Gaumont productions in coprodution with M6 channel. The Artist didn’t have such a mainstream and commercial backing. Here it’s an independant producer and France 3 channel. Very limited financial ambition if any.
Do you even know who Langmann is? He is just the biggest film producer in France with La Petite Reine. He is not independant at all! He was behind the biggest French productions of the last decade (including the most expensive one in French history, the last Asterix film, and the biggest BO successes of the last years: the Asterix films, Mesrine, Days of Glory..). And the other production company is Studio 37… this small independent film company which is just financed by Orange, the biggest European telecom company!
And you might also need to do a bit more research on financing by French TV channels. France 3 is the 4th biggest investor in French cinema, spending around 25 million a year divided between an average of 25. That’s the double of what M6 is spending every year (and probably even more than that when the OSS films were produced 5 years ago, and M6 films participation in French productions was almost insignificant).
I’m sorry mate, but it’s just all the other way around.
Nobody expected the OSS films to be a success, and the critical and public reception was a real surprise.
On the other end, after these two films and the status it conferred to Dujardin and Hazanavicius, and with a bigger budget and the most notorious producer in France behind it, a much more important promotional campaign, and a Cannes prize and glory (combined with the perfect release date in October), EVERYBODY expected The Artist to be a huge hit.
It isn’t. It is far from being a flop (very far from it), but it certainly doesn’t have the numbers expected and doesn’t seem to have the legs it was supposed to have (and benefit from an extraordinary word of mouth as was planned after Cannes and its crowning as the international crowd-pleaser of the year).
@Zooey: Like I wrote, Dunst is a German citizen now. So I guess that’s how she’s eligible.
Melancholia for the win!!!!!
This list is boring. The European Academy is no different than the Oscars most of the time. But here I have a little curious thing: Kirsten Dunst’s nomination. Did they finally revisit their rules? Because in the past a non-European was NOT allowed to receive a nomination for an European film. And now it is obviously possible. I checked and Dunst is American, so this nomination proves that things have changed. That’s good.
@ Jeremie,
actually the lack of a directing nomination means NOTHING, because if you check the list, last year’s Oscar winner for directing Tom Hooper isn’t nominated either.
What’s wrong with people and IN A BETTER WORLD? It’s probably one of the worst foreign language film winners in ages. It’s simply a mediocre film. Good actors, but it’s full of cliches and it’s overly sentimental and manipulative.
Jérémie and Mateus Nagime
I agree with RL1979
Nobody expected The Artist to do so well.
Not the producers, not the distributor, and probably even not Hazanavicius himself.
The OSS were not indie movies, they were Gaumont productions in coprodution with M6 channel. The Artist didn’t have such a mainstream and commercial backing. Here it’s an independant producer and France 3 channel. Very limited financial ambition if any. It needed to reach 1.2 millons entries to begin to gain money and producers didn’t believe that would be possible. And still, The Artist has already crossed that line.
The Artist is a bizarre animal. Hazanavicius has actually crafted a lovable mainstream b&w silent movie. How do you sell that ? It aims at and challenges the mainstream public (the one the less likely to want to be challenged) but doesn’t challenge the arthouse public. Hazanavicius has never been arthouse, he’s mainstream. Smart, funny and even elegant, but mainstream. Hazanavicius’s audience with the OSS was broad and young, Dujardin’s even younger thanks to Brice de Nice. Attracting teenagers and young adults in a silent b&w movie is another kind of challenge than with OSS. Hazanavicius said the simplicity and the lack of 2nd degree and irony of the romance would fare well with teenagers because that’s something they love, provided they would enter the theater to see “The Artist”. Both Hazanavicius and Dujardin knew they were challenging their public. They tried to reassure about what was in the film during the promotion. And it works, not to OSS’ extend but it works.
To see the lack of confidence of the distributor, see the figures. The Artist was only released on 295 screens on its debuting week. That’s LOW. It was only the 4th figure for a debuting film that week. And it still finished at the top of the box office. Polisse debuted with 407 screens, Intouchables with 665 and Tintin with 850. Polisse and The Artist had the same excellent occupancy rate by screen on their respective opening week. Warner Distribution was simply much more shy than Mars Distribution. Even Mars was believing more in Polisse than Warner in The Artist. Langmann even said beforehand that the movie wouldn’t find a financial balance in France and that he hoped foreign sales would achieve that. But actually, that financial balance has been reached at the end of the 3rd week. There are several other weeks ahead.
The Artist is not a phenomenon arthouse movie such as Polisse, it’s not a phenomenon mainstream movie like Tintin or Intouchables but, even stuck between 3 massive hits that could have sucked out its potential audience, it will easily reach 1.5 million entries and probably 1.7 millions if not more which will make it enter the top 20 of this year’s box office. To be more illustrative, it should beat True Grit this week-end and Thor by the end of its screen career. Not bad for a movie that doesn’t fit any box. Had it not faced the phenomenons that are Tintin, Intouchables and Polisse, it would probably have even done better. But such is the release schedule, empty at time and overcrowded right now.
Wow! A Dane here is proud. Denmark RULES this year’s European Film Awards.
And weird that Kirsten Dunst is nominated. I thought you HAD to be European to be nominated. But since she is a German citizen now, I guess it DOES count anyway…
Glad to see that the product of Melancholia outshines the politics surrounding the film. No matter what people like von Trier does or says, it should not overshadow how good the film is. And with Melancholia being the star (so far) of this year’s European Film Awards, I’m glad to see that people are looking objectively at the films presented.
Since they chose to nominate him, you can almost imagine them letting him WIN just to prove a point.
Generally I’m quite happy with the nomination list. I always feel the EFA (and Cesar awards) truly recognize quality films.
So happy that The Turin Horse got its 3 noms and Melancholia its sweep. A great list of nominees all around.
Paul H: you are the moron, jerk…that’s the single most stupid remark I have encountered on this site in a very long time.
Lars von Trier: The Herman Cain of moviemaking. Nothing he does that is profoundly offensive matters. I can’t believe after all the crap that’s projectile-vomited out of his mouth in 2011 he gets a nomination from these morons.
Jeremie, and RL1979,
i’m not french, but i’m living in Paris for a couple of months, and I can corroborate what Jeremie is saying about The Artist. The numbers are in deed low for the expectation it gathered. Actually, two plain market factors need to be considered: 1- it had a wide spread release, with A LOT of advertising and talk about, and the numbers in the first day were amazing, but it didn’t spread out along the week. And, 2- one of the reasons for the 20% down in the last week, is that it was school vacation, so everybody were at the movies. Tintin made more than 1 millions spectators, Polisse also gathered it more.
So, yes, for a B&W silent film is big, but as JEremie said, if a movie is hyped, wins a Cannes prize, and so one, everybody will see it (Polisse had another advantage, the lead actor is a pop rapper here, if i’m not mistaken), and the team behind is very well know. So, yes, is getting big numbers, but it was not as expected….
Dominik, yep, she recently became (officially) a German citizen and said she wants to move to Berlin and star in a German film. Of course, she said this in an interview with a German newspaper so who knows, but the media over here seemed quite charmed by that statement.
Note the major nominations for the Dardenne’s The Kid With a Bike (film, director, screenplay, actress).
And yet Belgium did not submit it for the FL Oscar, going instead for Bullhead, apparently because the country rotates between French and Flemish language films, so it didn’t have a chance.
And people wonder why this category so often doesn’t include the most deserving films.
Londongirl, yeah I heard she´s half german now (and part of “old europe”)!
is it just me or is there no non-European category?
They don’t think much of editors and production designers, do they?
Hee, good thing Dunst has dual citizenship now.;-)
Where is the nomination for the director of The Artist? Yet another case of the self-directed movie.
Same question RL1979, are you French?
Not that I’m trying to prove anything by that, but I think the French BO market is a pretty particular one, and you’ve to be quite familiar with it to understand it.
The numbers for The Artist ARE low. The two OSS films might be “silly comedies” but they were first of all small independent films, ones of the most critically acclaimed in the respective year, an homage to old-fashioned cinema (does that sound familiar?) and NEVER never destined to be BO successes. Unless you were in France at the time when they released you wouldn’t know that. The fact they made these numbers at the film was a real surprised at the time and established Dujardin and Hazanavicius are two of the golden boys of French cinema.
And as I said above the fact that the film is in B&W and silent is absolutely irrelevant. Have you seen Of Gods and Men? If yes, can you explain how such a dry film that can make 3.2 entries, and something like that can be issue for The Artist?
Furthermore, almost every French films which have been selected at Cannes (and even more if it had won a prize like The Artist, and benefited from an intensive commercial promotion in the next six months before its release) is guaranteed to make at least 750.000 at the BO. Even Polisse is making better numbers right now (and child abuse is a crowd-pleasing subject isn’t it?).
I’m not trying to dismiss the chances of The Artist, I’d love if somebody as brilliant as Hazanavicius could get recognition from the Oscar. But I’m seriously doubting that, if the film is struggling to be a surefire hit in France, it can be a BO success in the US (where the B&W and silent thing WILL be an issue), and therefore have any luch with the Oscars.
Thanks to the French Film Days in my hometown, I´m lucky to see “Le Gamin au Velo” tomorrow and “La guerre est declarée” (by the way, was this one ineligible?) on Monday.
I´m very happy for “Melancholia” which is among the very best van Trier-films I´ve seen, also happy for the two leading ladies Dunst and Gainsbourg. All in all, this is a very impressive list of nominees – “Le Havre” and “The Skin I live in” were both pretty good and entertaining movies too.
“Tyrannosaur” and “Shame” would definitely have been on that list if eligible. Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan are both great in it!
This list reminds me how great current european cinema is!
The Turin Horse is the best movie I’ve seen in years. All parties involved deserve their nominations.
Excited for Charlotte Gainsbourgh especially. I didn’t particularly love Melancholia but Charlotte, once again, hit it out of the park. I love her.
Jeremie: Oh, come on, you can´t compare the two silly, but crowd-pleasing OSS117-films with “The Artist”. Even for the French more than one million spectators in three weeks for a black and white silent film is pretty astounding. Furthermore of course such an unconventional film is all but frontloaded and with a 21% decrease on the second weekend and a similar one on the third weekend it will gather many more spectators in the weeks ahead. I really don´t think Hazanavicius will complain about the French numbers so far …
I’m happy for The Artist and for Melancholia. They are two GREAT films.
On Shame not been nominated for anything… I think the film will only be up for selection next year so… we have to wait for one year for another Fassbender nomination.
It’ll be interesting to see if either Kirsten Dunst or Tilda Swinton will win the best actress award here. They’re both part of this season’s awards buzz, the latter more so, but still.
@Cole
Are you French? Because I am, and even if yes these 3 films are not completely comparable, these low numbers for the Dujardin and his director speaks a great deal.
They are one of the hottest pair working in France today, and they could do any kind of film and get massive public support (the first OSS film wasn’t exactly made to be a BO hit).
And the b&w, silent film arguments might of some value for an American audience, but it doesn’t really matter in France. French audiences are much more open and willing to be challenged. Just look at last year numbers, the third biggest French film of the year was Of Gods and Men with 3.2 million tickets sold. And yet it’s not exactly your typical friendly crowd-pleaser, is it?
Oh actually after checking the selection process, just realised that the 3 Uk eligible films were Neds, We Need To Talk About Kevin and The King’s Speech. The process is explained here, and it is a rather odd one:
http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/the-european-film-awards/awards-information/feature-films/
“In the 20 (twenty) European countries with the highest number of EFA Members (as of 15 March 2011) these members vote directly for one film from among the national feature films released in their country or screened at festivals after 1 July 2010. With a minimal voter turnout of 25%, the film having received the highest number of votes in each of these countries will automatically be included in the selection of films, provided it corresponds to the regulations of the European Film Awards. Should the voter turnout be less than 25%, the EFA Board has the right to establish which film shall be added to the selection.
– the selection of the app 20 remaining films is made by a committee composed of members of the EFA Board and a group of experts appointed by the Board. These remaining films are selected from proposals submitted before 15 June by European film institutions, festivals, trade magazines, media partners, members of the European Film Academy and producers of European films.”
I am so happy that Markina become a nominee)
So, my suspictions about the latest Almodovar – which till today, I still have skipped – seem to be right… Happy for Melancholia and for The King’s Speech… maybe some will now understand it didn’t win 4 Oscars for politics, but, ’cause it’s a masterpiece. Just look at its rivals (Melancholia is the one I’ve seen) pedigree… The EFA’s aren’t a joke.
The Artist is a black and white silent Movie, so 1 165 893 tickets sold after 3 weeks in France, it’s very very unique and great, no one expected this success. You can’t compare this collaboration with the previous one between the director and Dujardin. It’s not comparable.
Ok, I have to come off as a bit patriotic here. But as a Dane I’m proud that to out of six films and two out of five directors on the shortlist is Danish. Quite an achievement for such a small country!
It is further interesting that the two Danish directors are notorious “arch rivals”, Bier and Trier. As many will know, Bier was on the “receiving end” of Trier’s Cannes tirade…well, it only adds up to an interesting showdown (not least seen through a Danish lens…)
@ lynne
My expectation is that perhaps Shame is ineligible, although I’m not sure, as the omission of Tinker Tailor is very odd.
Great list and very happy for Melancholia and the polite disdain to The King’s Speech (yeah!) but I’m very surprised by the omission of so many great Brit films. It’s been an incredible year for the UK and this list doesn’t give it justice. Where are Tinke, Tailor, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Shame, The Guard, Tyrannosaur, Kill List, Attack The Block, Coriolanus, Submarine, Weekend… ?
…
On another note, I think recent events regarding The Artist are really making me questioning its artificial status of sure nominee (and even winner by some). It had a very so so release in France (1 165 893 tickets sold after 3 weeks, where the two previous collaborations between the director and Dujardin made 2 486 293 and 2 224 538), and the European Film Awards didn’t give it that much love either. If the film fails to conquer audiences even in its home country where the director and actor are adored, and fails to a strong support by the main awards body in Europe, I don’t think that’s a good sign for its Oscar prospect.
Huh? Why is it TKS instead of Tinker, Tailor/Shame etc.?
Melancholia!!!! Im so happy for kiki!!
Melancholia! OH MY GOSH! KIRSTEN DUNST, CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG! I CAN’T STOP CRYING! I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!! TWO OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!