A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Austria

Original title: Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea (2003)

English title: Donau

Director: Goran Rebic

Running time: 90 minutes

Language: German with English subtitles  

Category: IIA

Cast: Svetozar Cvetkovic, Denissa Dér, Ioana Flora, Vladimir Goryansky, Christi Jacob, Annabelle Mandeng, Florin Piersic Jr, Otto Sander, Sonja Savic, Robert Stadlober

Captain Franz has spent his whole life on the water and his home is the vessel whose prow bears the river's name in the languages of all the Danube countries: Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea. The many years of plying the river between Budapest and Regensburg have made Franz surly and taciturn. Also on board are Nikola, his Serbian engineer, the crippled young Hungarian Tanja, and Giorgi, the captain's loyal companion for many years now. Franz is far from pleased when Bruno boards the ship in Vienna with a coffin containing the mortal remains of Mara, the love of Franz's life and Bruno's foster-mother. Bruno's sudden appearance revives Franz's painful memories of losing his adored son in the waters of Iron Gate – where Mara wishes to be laid to rest. Having never come to terms with the past, Franz refuses to take Bruno or the coffin on board.

Undeterred by this setback, Bruno sets off in a small barge with the coffin, heading downriver towards Budapest. A rain storm sweeps over Vienna and the river is dark and sinister.  While Franz agonises over his decision, he makes up his mind: at kilometre 1,927 the Donau casts off en route for Budapest where he has lost sight of Bruno but found the coffin at Hungarian customs. While Mara's remains were being lowered into Donau, Franz finally resolves to fulfil Mara's dying wish and sets out on the long journey to the Iron Gate.

Awards received

• Silver Rosa Camuna, Bergamo Film Meeting 2005 (Italy)
• Audience Award, Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival 2003 (Germany)

The Czech Republic

Original title: Marian (1996)

English title: Marian

Director: Petr Václav

Running time: 107 minutes

Language: Czech with English subtitles

Category: IIB

Cast: Milan Cifra, Stefan Ferko, Radek Holub, Eva Hradilová, Jaroslava Vyslouzilová, Tereza Zajickova

When 22 year old Marian Kovacs is woken up in his cell by a guard, his past flashes by.  At three years old Marian is taken into care by the state when his mother, a Gypsy, is judged by the courts to be irresponsible and incapable of bringing up her child.  Marian does not speak Czech and has no notion of personal hygiene. He is classified as 'mentally retarded' on account of hereditary defects inherent in his race.  His prognosis is dismal.  Marian grows up wild and rebellious in a hostile world which is indifferent towards him in orphanages, correctional facilities and on and off in prison.  He puts his hope in the few people he meets along the way.  However, they are unable to develop any durable human relationship. Aged 22, can he survive such loneliness? Can he escape the circle which holds him in its grip?

Awards received

• Crystal Simorgh, International Competition: Best Director, Fajr Film Festival 1998 (Iran)
• Procirep Award, Angers Premiers Plan Film Festival 1997 (France)
• Film Directing Award and Promotional Award, Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 1996 (Germany)
• Silver Leopard, Locarno International Film Festival 1996 (Switzerland)

Denmark

Original title: Reconstruction (2003)

English title: Reconstruction

Director: Christoffer Boe

Running time: 90 minutes

Language: Danish and Swedish with English subtitles

Category: IIA

Cast: Maria Bonnevie, Nicolas Bro, Ida Dwinger, Helle Fagralid, Krister Henriksson, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Malene Schwartz, Peter Steen

Like in a game played with a mirror, a man who is in trouble repeatedly faces the horror of being unrecognised by the person he loves. This loss of identity is the gag upon which the film is built and re-built in a kind of uncertain movement towards nowhere. As if to go further would be to lose all weight in the chaos, this game drives us to different places and spaces where the boundaries between dreams and reality are weakly delineated.

Set in the charming city of Copenhagen, one night, Alex, a saturnine young photographer, suddenly falls in love with Aimee, a mysterious blonde stranger married to a middle-aged novelist. Their feelings for each other are put to the test as the world around them becomes more and more alien in a labyrinthine Copenhagen: Alex's girlfriend, Simone, no longer recognises him and the apartment that he lived in no longer exists. Staking their existence, Alex and Aimee find themselves in free fall, with Alex facing the questions of how far he is willing to go and how much he is prepared to give up for his dream of true love.

Awards received

• Best Actor, Cinemanila International Film Festival 2004 (Philippines)
• Bronze Frog, Camerimage 2004 (Poland)
• Robert Award, for best editing and best sound, Robert Festival 2004 (Denmark)
• Grand Prix, Sofia International Film Festival 2004 (Bulgaria)
• Best Nordic Newcomer, Amanda Awards 2003 (Norway)
• FIPRESCI Director of the Year, San Sebastián International Film Festival 2003 (Spain)
• Gold Plaque, for outstanding cinematography, Chicago International Film Festival 2003 (USA)
• Golden Camera, Cannes Film Festival 2003 (France)
• Prix Regards Jeune, Best Feature, Cannes Film Festival 2003 (France)

Finland

Original title: Onnen varjot (2005)

English title: Shades of Happiness

Director: Claes Olsson

Running time: 104 minutes

Language: Finnish with English subtitles

Cast: Milka Ahlroth, Anna-Leena Härkönen, Dick Idman, Otto Kanerva, Santeri Kinnunen, Nicke Lignell, Tiina Lymi, Markus Mäkinen, Pirkko Mannola, Mika Nuojua, Satu Silvo

Paula, an arts teacher, and her husband Jarkko Tiensuu, a family therapist for the parish, have tried to have a child for some years. Helena and her husband Mikko Raski, are a career-oriented couple who both work for an IT company. Their relationship is fine until Helena suddenly wants to have a child. The destinies of these couples get mixed together in surprising ways after Helena and Paula run into each other at a class reunion. Paula is having yet another embryo transfer and she gets pregnant this time around. Helena finds out by accident that Mikko is sterile and her obsessive dream of having a child frightens Mikko into moving out. Paula has a miscarriage and collapses whilst Helena visits the family therapist, Jarkko, unaware that he is Paula's husband, and ends up pregnant with Jarkko's child.

Germany

Original title: Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001)

English title: Nowhere in Africa

Director: Caroline Link

Running time: 141 minutes

Language: English, Swahili and German with English subtitles

Category: IIB

Cast: Karoline Eckertz, Mechthild Grossmann, Matthias Habich, Gerd Heinz, Maritta Horwarth, Juliane Köhler, Lea Kurka, Julia Leidl, Merab Ninidze, Gabrielle Odinis, Sidede Onyulo, Bettina Redlich, Hildegard Schmahl, Joel Wajsberg, Regine Zimmermann

A love story spanning two continents, Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel and their five year old daughter Regina, each deals with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter resigned to work in the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country— learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook.

As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio's relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter becomes more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.

Awards received

• Best Foreign Language Film, Oscars 2003
• Audience Award, Bavarian Film Awards 2003 (Germany)
• Euregio Film Award, Most Promising Young Talent, Euregio Filmball 2003 (Germany)
• Film Award in Gold, Outstanding Feature Film and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography, Direction, Music, Supporting Actor, German Film Awards 2002 (Germany)
• Bavarian Film Award, Best Production, Bavarian Film Awards 2002 (Germany)
• Guild Film Award – Silver, Guild of German Art House Cinemas 2002 (Germany)
• Golden Wave, Best Film and Best Screenplay, Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema 2002 (France)
• FIPRESCI Prize and Special Prize of the Jury, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2002 (Czech Republic)
• Audience Award, Hamptons International Film Festival 2002 (USA)
• Audience Award – Best Feature, High Falls Film Festival 2002 (USA)
• Interfaith Award – Feature Film and International Film Award, St. Louis International Film Festival 2002 (USA)

Greece

Original title :Politiki kouzina (2003)

English title: A Touch of Spice

Director:Tassos Boulmetis

Running time: 108 minutes

Language: English, Greek and Turkish with English subtitles

Category: IIB

Cast: Tassos Bandis, Georges Corraface, Tamer Karadagli, Basak Köklükaya,  Renia Louizdou, Stelios Mainas, Ieroklis Michaelidis, Markos Osse

Fanis, a young Greek boy from Istanbul, has a grandfather who is a culinary philosopher and mentor who teaches Fanis that both food and life require seasoning with a touch of salt and ... A Touch of Spice. Fanis grows up to become an excellent cook, using his cooking skills to spice up the lives of those around him. Thirty-five years later he leaves Athens and travels back to his birthplace of Istanbul to reunite with his grandfather and his first love; only then does he realise that he has forgotten to put a little bit of spice into his own life.

Awards received

• Audience Award, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Fiction Film,  Best Music, Best Screenplay, Best Set Design, Best Sound and Greek Union of Film and Television Technicians Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival 2003 (Greece)

Hungary

Original title: Édes Emma, drága Böbe (1992)

English title: Dear Emma, Sweet Böbe

Director: István Szabó

Running time: 78 minutes

Language: Hungarian with English subtitles

Category: IIB

Cast: Péter Andorai, Ildikó Bánsági, Irén Bódis, Enikö Börcsök, Erzsi Gaál, Gábor Máté, Zoltán Mucsi, Erzsi Pásztor, Irma Patkós, Tamás Jordán, Éva Kerekes,  Johanna ter Steege, Hédi Temessy

Emma and Böbe are two country girls who taught Russian in a primary school in the capital of Hungary during the former regime. As socialism comes to an end, the change of the system swept away the obligation to learn Russian, so in order to go on teaching Emma and Böbe attend evening English courses and teach their students their newly-obtained knowledge the morning after. The girls find themselves in a fight for their existence - Emma has to clean for well-to-do families and Böbe picks up foreigners in bars for free dinners. Meanwhile, Emma is in love with the school director who is married with children and won't leave his wife and Böbe gets into trouble because of illegal prostitution.   In desperation, Bobe later commits suicide, leaving Emma to continue her struggle alone, suffering from the lack of love and faith.

Awards received

• Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, Berlin International Film Festival 1992 (Germany)
• Silver Berlin Bear, Berlin International Film Festival 1992 (Germany)
• European Film Award, Best Screenwriters,  European Film Awards 1992

Italy

Original title: La Meglio gioventù (2003)

English title: The Best of Youth

Director: Marco Tullio Giordana

Running time: 400 minutes

Language: Italian with English subtitles

Category: IIA

Cast: Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Paolo Bonanni, Alessio Boni, Valentina Carnelutti, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Gifuni, Claudio Gioè, Michele Melega, Maya Sansa, Mario Schiano, Giovanni Scifoni, Andrea Tidona, Jasmine Trinca, Lidia Vitale

Beginning with a joint attempt to help a young girl who is confined to an asylum, two Italian brothers, Nicola and Matteo Carati, go through some of the most tumultuous events of recent Italian history spanning four decades - from the chaotic 1960s to the present day. In a final period of hopeful innocence, free-spirited Nicola travels the world and settles for life as a successful psychiatrist, while his tragically introverted and idealistic brother Matteo joins the Italian police with the hope of righting society's wrongs. Their politics and personalities are inextricably intertwined as the world around them violently shifts and they are pushed together and pulled apart by the tides of history and their own divergent dreams.

Awards received

• Audience Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2004 (USA)
• Audience Award, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2004 (Netherlands)
• Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Producer, Best Screenplay and Best Sound, David di Donatello Awards 2004 (Italy)
• Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director, Seattle International Film Festival 2004 (USA)
• People's Choice Ward for Best Feature-Length Fiction Film, Denver International Film Festival 2003 (USA)
• Silver Ribbon for Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Producer, Best Screenplay and Best Sound, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 2004 (Italy)
• Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes Film Festival 2003 (France)

The Netherlands

Original title: Shouf Shouf Habibi! (2004)

English title: Hush Hush Baby

Director: Albert Ter Heerdt

Running time: 89 minutes

Language: Dutch and Arabic with English subtitles

Cast: Leo Alkemade, Najib Amhali, Salah Eddine Benmoussa,  Mohammed Chaara, Tara Elders, Winston Gerschtanowitz, Touriya Haoud, Tanja Jess, Ahmed Kamal,  Frank Lammers, Bridget Maasland, Mimoun Oaïssa, Iliass Ojja, Mimoun Ouled Radi, Zohra 'Flifla' Slimani

Abdullah (Ap) is a 20 year old Dutch man with Moroccan roots. He has no idea what he wants to do with his life, but he dreams about being an Arab actor in Hollywood - he fantasising with his Moroccan and Dutch friends about a wealthy and happy future.

Ap is increasingly bored by his friends, he doesn't have high hopes for his family either, his eldest brother even became a cop and represents all he hates about Dutch society. A job his policeman brother finds for him turns into a fiasco, largely because of his new blunt boss' latent racism. After this disaster, he decides to join his friends as they carry out a bank raid they have been planning, but this too turns out to be a hilarious flop and Ap only just manages to keep out the hands of the police.

Then Ap turns back to tradition. He promises his father he will do something with his life, he will marry a girl from Morocco and get a job at a traditional Islamic butcher's. Ap travels to Morocco and chooses his bride to be. He starts preparing for the wedding and nothing seems to be standing in the way of a glorious future.  But yet again, things don't quite turn out as planned.

Awards received

• Golden Film, Golden and Platin Film 2004 (Netherlands)
• Dutch Film Critics Award and Special Jury Prize, Nederlands Film Festival 2004 (Netherlands)
• Silver Prometheus, Tbilisi International Film Festival 2004 (Georgia)

Portugal

Original title:Os Imortais (2003)

English title: The Immortals

Director:António-Pedro Vasconcelos

Running time: 130 minutes

Language: Portuguese with English subtitles

Cast: Joaquim de Almeida, Nicolau Breyner, Filipe Duarte, Alexandra Lencastre, Paula Mora, Joaquim Nicolau, Ana Padrão, Maria Rueff, Rogério Samora, Emmanuelle Seigner, Rui Unas

At his hotel in the Algarve, 50 year old Victor Pratas drinks to the memory of his four departed fellow soldiers, ancient commandos, as he is informed of the death of Joaquim Malarranha, an ex-detective that had become a guitar player at his Fado House in Lisbon. At the funeral, Pratas recalls the incidents that led to the death of his companions and how the former detective had engaged in the group's activities, unveiling stories behind how the man being buried once found out the criminal secrets of the immortals.

Spain

Original title: Smoking Room (2002)

English title: Smoking Room

Director: Julio Wallovits , Roger Gual

Running time: 88 minutes

Language: Spanish with English subtitles

Category: IIB

Cast: Antonio Dechent, Juan Diego, Ulises Dumont, Eduard Fernández, Francesc Garrido, Chete Lera, Manuel Morón, Francesc Orella, Vicky Peña

When a no-smoking ordinance goes into effect, heated office politics boil quickly to the surface as a tobacco-loving employee, Ramirez, makes a desperate plea for a smoking room in a Spanish branch of an American company. Though his bid for nicotine bliss initially divides employee's loyalties based solely on the subject at hand, petty grievances soon erupt into an all-out war concerning twisted office politics. With employees going back on their initial support for the smoking room and paranoia soon giving way to shifting loyalties. It seems that everyone has their own agenda when it comes to how the company is being run.

Awards received

• Best First Work, ADIRCAE Awards 2003 (Spain)
• CEC Award, Best Editing and Best New Artist, Cinema Writers Circle Awards, 2003 (Spain)
• Best New Director, Goya Awards 2003 (Spain)
• Best Catalan Film Actor, Butaca Awards 2002 (Spain)
• Silver Biznaga for Best Actor and Special Jury Award for Best Film, Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2002 (Spain)
• Special Mention, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2002 (Czech Republic)

Sweden

Original title: Kattbreven (2001)

English title: Touched by an Angel

Director: Christina Olofson

Running time: 90 minutes

Language: Swedish with English subtitles

Category: IIA

Cast: Lia Boysen, Felix Engström, Anna Ulrika Eriksson, Pale Olofsson, Patricia Otter, Anders Johannisson, Barbro Kollberg, Christina Stenius, Daniela Holm-Verzola, Max Wallér-Zandén

A magical story about deceit and responsibility, a story about how one can be left alone and still have the courage to trust others.  Sofi, aged 13, has to leave her friends in town and move to the countryside with her mother and her new boyfriend, but has difficulty adapting to her new life and feels lonely and unwanted. In the village she meets a wise woman who tells her strange stories about unsolved mysteries from the village's past and she finds an abandoned cat, Mitzi, that receives letters. She also finds some strange newspaper clippings about a theft in a church and when Mitzi's previous owner turns up with her best friend Ubbe, an unusual course of events start to unravel.

UK

Original title: Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Director: Peter Webber

Running time: 100 minutes

Language: English

Category: IIA

Cast: Essie Davis, Colin Firth, Chris McHallem, Scarlett Johansson, Alakina Mann, Melanie Meyfroid, Cillian Murphy, Anaïs Nepper, Nathan Nepper, Judy Parfitt, Anna Popplewell, Gabrielle Reidy, Joanna Scanlan, Rollo Weeks, Tom Wilkinso

Seventeen year old Griet must work to support her family after her painter father is blinded in an explosion. She becomes a maid in the home of Johannes Vermeer, the 17th century painting master. Although worlds apart in upbringing, education and social standing, Griet gradually attracts Vermeer's attention by her intuitive understanding of colour and light. Being a perfectionist, Vermeer often takes months to finish a painting, but his mother-in-law sees how Vermeer's meagre output is a threat to his family's lavish lifestyle, so seeing how Griet inspires Vermeer's work, she takes the dangerous decision to let their relationship develop. The wealthy and lascivious Van Ruijven commissions Vermeer to do a painting of Griet, while secretly plotting to get Griet for himself before the painting is finished. Keeping the relationship in the dark away from Vermeer's wife and from the cruel gossip of the world of 17th century servants, Griet secretly poses with the wife's precious pearl earring for the now renowned painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. Vermeer's mischievous 12 year old daughter, Cornelia, sees more than she should and quickly grows jealous and suspicious of Griet, and determines to cause trouble for the clandestine relationship.

Awards received

• Best Foreign Actress, Sant Jordi Awards 2005 (Spain)
• Eagle Award for Best European Film, Polish Film Awards 2005 (Poland)
• Best Cinematographer, European Film Award 2004 (Europe-wide)
• Best Cinematography, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2004 (USA)
• Audience Award and Golden Hitchcock, Dinard British Film Festival 2003 (France)
• Best Cinematography and C.I.C.A.E. Award, San Sebastián International Film Festival 2003 (Spain)
• Best Cinematography, San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2003 (USA)
• Bronze Frog, Camerimage 2003 (Poland)