European Film Academy and and EU Parliament Reveal 2023 Lux Award Nominations – Global Bulletin

Naman Ramachandran
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AWARDS

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations for Lux – The European Audience Film Award. The award is presented by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas.

The nominated films are: “20,000 Species of Bees” by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain); “The Teacher’s Lounge” by İlker Çatak (Germany); “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany); “On the Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan); and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” by Anna Hints (Estonia, France, Iceland).

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The five nominated films will now be subtitled in all 24 EU languages. The winner will be determined by the general public and the members of the European Parliament (each holding 50% of the vote) and announced during an awards ceremony in March 2024.

European Film Academy chair and president of the Lux jury Mike Downey said: “We know that cinema not only enhances the imagination but also shows our entire world in multiple perspectives and has the power to broaden our vision and thinking.  We just have to look at the five candidates for this year’s award – great works of art which are diverse, entertaining, and socially engaged in the world in which we live.”

APPOINTMENT

International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Tamara Tatishvili as the new head of the Hubert Bals Fund, the festival’s global film fund, replacing Bianca Taal. Tatishvili worked for several years as director of the Georgian National Film Center and is currently head of studies at MEDICI, a training and exchange forum for senior decision makers of international public film funds.

Fund manager Jeske van der Slikke will shortly be taking maternity leave and coordinator Ayumi Filippone will over until March 2024 in Van der Slikke’s absence.

CINEFESTOZ AWARDS

“Shayda,” by writer-director, co-producer Noora Niasari, was Sunday named winner of the best film prize and A$100,000 ($65,000) at the CinefestOZ festival in Western Australia. The film was a winner at Sundance and was recently selected as Australia’s contender for the best international feature film prize. Filmmaker, Robert Connolly, who headed the jury hailed “Shayda” as “a film that introduces an exceptional new filmmaking voice, revealing with great authenticity and emotional impact a deeply personal story untold previously in our national cinema, driven at its heart by two extraordinary performances depicting the resilience and love between a mother and a daughter.”

CHANGCHUN AWARDS

The 18th China Changchun Film Festival wrapped up on Saturday with the announcement of the Golden Deer Awards. “The Wandering Earth 2” received the best film award. Rao Xiaoshi was named best director for “Homecoming.” Wang Baoqiang won the best screenplay for “Never Say Never” (aka “In the Octagonal Cage”.) Jackson Yee picked up the best actor award for his performance in “Full River Red.” Ni Ni was named best actress for her performance in “Lost in the Stars.”

PRODUCTION

India’s Jeethu Joseph, creator of Malayalam-language hit thriller film franchise Drishyam, has teamed with Junglee Pictures (“Badhaai Do,” “Raazi”) and Cloud 9 Pictures on an as-yet-untitled Hindi-language action thriller. The film will revolve around a valiant, sharp and quick-witted law enforcement officer who embarks on a journey to fight for truth and bring justice in a high stakes case at international level.

TRAILER

Streamer SkyShowtime has unveiled the trailer for its new original series “Codename: Annika,” a twist on the Nordic noir genre. The first episode will be available to stream on the premiere day, with new episodes dropping weekly. The six-part thriller series, created by Mia Ylönen and Aleksi Bardy, goes behind the curtain of the hidden world of high-class art-fraud and explores the reality of navigating a double identity.

The cast is led by Sannah Nedergård (“Yellow Sulphur Sky”) as Finnish art fraud investigator Emma/Annika. It also incudes Ardalan Esmaili (“Snabba Cash”), Eva Melander (“Border”), Helena Bergström (“House of Angels”), Pekka Strang (“Tom of Finland”), Miro Lopperi (“Aikuiset”), Clarisse Lhoni-Botte (“Rolling to You”) and Charles Martins (“Emily in Paris”). The series is directed by A.J. Annila (“Peacemaker”).

Codename: Annika has received development support from Finnish Film Foundation and Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA of the European Union and is financed by Business Finland – Audiovisual Production Incentive. Co-creators for Helsinki-Filmi are Mia Ylönen and Aleksi Bardy.

The series will be available exclusively on SkyShowtime from Sept. 30.

Watch the trailer here:

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