EFA Nominations: Poland's "Cold War" Leads
Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 9:46AM by Nathaniel R
Joanna Kulig in "Cold War"
It was a big morning for Oscar hopefuls in the foreign language film category as a handful of them have been nominated for multiple European Film Awards. Pawel Pawlikowski, whose nun drama Ida won the Oscar a handful of years back, is leading the EFA field with his new music-filled drama Cold War, about a musician and singer in a long tragic love affair across Europe. It's nominated in 5 categories. The nearest rivals with 4 nominations each are Italy's Dogman, Sweden's Border, and Italy's Happy as Lazzaro (the only one not submitted for the Oscars). Two other Oscar submissions also had cause to celebrate: Denmark's police thriller The Guilty and Belgium's trans ballerina drama Girl were also nominated for a few awards.
The complete list of nominations and a few more comments are after the jump...
BEST FILM
Sweden's bizarre, gripping "Border"
- Border (Sweden) Reviewed
- Cold War (Poland) Reviewed
- Dogman (Italy)
- Girl (Belgium)
- Happy as Lazzaro (Italy) Reviewed
Of these five fine pictures only Happy as Lazzaro is ineligible for Best Foreign Language Film as each country can only submit one and Italy went with Dogman instead. I fully expect all of the others to make the 9 wide finalist list for Oscar but whether or not they're nominated... competition is stiff this year!
BEST DIRECTOR
Sisters Alice (Director) and Alba (Actress) Rohrwacher are both nominated for "Happy as Lazzaro"
- Ali Abbas for Border
- Matteo Garrone for Dogman
- Samuel Maoz for Foxtrot (Israel)
- Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War
- Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro
EFA Darlings Alert! Pawlikowski has been nominated for 7 EFAs in the past, winning 5 (four of them for Ida) and he has multiple nominations again this year. Garrone has also previously won this category (for Gomorrah). Maoz took the "Discovery" prize (essentially "best new director) for Lebanon (and Foxtrot made the Oscar finalist list but the nominee list last year). Abbas and Rohrwacher are experiencing their first EFA nominations.
EUROPEAN ACTRESS
- Marie Baumer for 3 Days in Quiberon (Germany)
- Halldora Geirhardsdottir for Woman at War (Iceland) - Reviewed
- Joanna Kulig for Cold War
- Barbara Lennie for Petra (Spain)
- Eva Melander for Border
- Alba Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro
I suspect Kulig has the edge given the massive love for Cold War (and she's ravishingly beautiful in it which never hurts in encouraging fandom)
EUROPEAN ACTOR
Sverrir Gudnason asa Bjorn Borg
- Jacob Cedergren for The Guilty
- Rupert Everett for The Happy Prince (UK)
- Sverrir Gudnason for Borg/McEnroe (Sweden)
- Tomasz Kot for Cold War
- Marcello Fonte for Dogman
- Victor Polster for Girl
Fonte took Best Actor at Cannes so he's a strong possibility to repeat here. Polster, Kot, and Cedergren's films are all well loved by the EFA too so this could be competitive.
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
- Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklof, and John Ajvide Lindqvist for Border
- Matteo Garrone, Ugo Chiti, and Massimo Gaudioso for Dogman
- Gustaav Moller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen for The Guilty
- Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War
- Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro
BEST COMEDY
Portugal's insane "Diamantino"
- C'est La Vie (France)
- Diamantino (Portugal) Reviewed
- Death of Stalin (UK)
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY
Essentially a new filmmaker award. And it's half women! Two of these are on the Oscar list among the debut filmmakers there.
Gustav Moller has already signed with Hollywood so expect to hear his name again soon.
- Girl directed by Lukas Dhont
- The Guilty directed by Gustav Moller
- One Day (Hungary) directed by Zsófia Szilágyi
- Scary Mother (Georgia) directed by Ana Urushadze
- Those Who Are Fine (Switzerland) directed by Cyril Schäublin
- Touch Me Not (Romania) directed by Adina Pintilie - Reviewed
Essentially a new filmmaker award. And it's half women! Two of these are on the Oscar list among the debut filmmakers there. Exciting race but we think Dhont has the edge because his film is up for the top award and he won the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
- Bergman - A Year in A Life (Sweden)
About the legendary filmmaker, of course - The Distant Barking of Dogs (Denmark)
The life of a 10 year old boy in the Ukraine during the war - Of Fathers and Sons (Syria/Lebanon/Qatar)
The filmmaker returns home to gain the trust of his radical Islamic family to share insights into their life. - The Silence of Others (Spain)
The long journey of victims of General Franco's regime, still seeking justice - A Woman Captured (Hungary)
The journey of a woman who has been kept as a domestic slave for 10 years
EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE
Previously discussed here but only Early Man is eligible for the Oscars this year (The Breadwinner competed last year)
Another Day of Life
- Another Day of Life (Poland/Spain)
- Early Man (UK)
- The Breadwinner (Ireland)
- White Fang (Luxembourg)
EUROPEAN SHORT
It'll be interesting to watch if any of these end up on Oscar's finalist list which often leans into foreign shorts.
- Aquaparque (Portugal)
- Burkina Brandenburg Komplex (Germany)
- The Escape (France)
- Graduation '97 (Ukraine)
- I Signed the Petition (UK)
- Kapitalists (Belgium)
- Kontener (Germany)
- Meryem (The Netherlands)
- Prisoner of Society (Georgia)
- Release the Dogs (France)
- Shame (Bulgaria)
- Those Who Desire (Spain)
- What's the Damage (UK)
- Wildebeest (Belgium)
- The Years (Italy)
Reader Comments (14)
I can't believe they didn't nominate such a wonderful film as Christian Petzold's Transit. That movie is disturbing, unsettling, making us see our future while mixing present and past in an universe that belongs to this movie and no other one else. I adore its mix of WWII drama and noir and urgent political film, like Hemingway meets Costa Gavras. Transit is better than all the other movies in this list I've seen (only Cold War is an equal).
If you ever have a chance to see Zsofia Szilagyi's One Day, don't think twice. It is a lean and mean domestic thriller where the tension is built on prosaic situations. And it has a beautifully concise performance at its' center. Think Romanian New Wave but funnier.
No Black Panther? Boo Europe!
I just saw Lazzaro felice yesterday and I can't stop thinking about it.
I'm rooting for Victor Polser and I'm sorry that Trine Dyrholm wasn't even elegible for Nico, 1988.
THOSE WHO DESIRE is not a Spanish short film, it's a Swiss Short Film. Please correct this. Thank you Nathaniel. Great job!
"Cold War" is absolutely brilliant. Very well-deserved nominations.
Cold War remains my favorite film of the year thus far, so I'm thrilled to see it doing well. Hope Oscar doesn't forget about it!
Last week took place Fenix Awards, one of the iberoamerican film award (latin american + Spain and Portugal).
With Colombia's Birds of Passage winning best film, actress and music.
Argentina's El Angel took Best Actor
Paraguay's The Heiresses won Best Director.
Last year Argentina's submition Zama won 4 prices all in technical categories.
Last week took place Fenix Awards, one of the iberoamerican film award (latin american + Spain and Portugal).
With Colombia's Birds of Passage winning best film, actress and music.
Argentina's El Angel took Best Actor
Paraguay's The Heiresses won Best Director.
Last year Argentina's submition Zama won 4 prices all in technical categories.
https://premiosfenix.com/es/nominados/2018/
Los que desean (Those Who Desire) is a co-production.
@ReeseW Black Phanter is american production and Ryan Coogler is American so he and the film ineligible for EFA.
No Nom for Nemes's Sunset ( maybe the film eligible for next year) or Donnesmark Never Look Away ?
Amazingany -- I was kidding, you dummy
This may solidify Joanna Kulig's possibly left field, totally wild card nomination as best actress in the Oscar. I know it's already crowded but sometimes pleasantly unexpected things happen, cf: Marion Cotillard in Deux jours, une nuit in 2014.
Count me in as a fan of Petzold's Transit with a dazzling turn from Franz Rogowski (Huppert's son in Happy End).
Great lineups of films overall, further proof there is a whole ocean of cinematic gems in rarely navigated filmworlds. Also, I am sure there are films from other countries which did not get distribution but should be seen than the ones that get wider circulation in our cineplexes.
The actor from Girl is Victor 'Polster', not Polser. Anyway, I'm really happy for Happy as Lazzaro and Cold War. Both are my favourite films of the year.