The European Film Awards, the annual prize event recognising excellence in European cinema, has announced the nominations for the 31st ceremony to be held on 15 December in Seville.
Among the films on the EFA Members' voting list are two Danish titles, Gustav Möller's 'The Guilty' and Simon Lereng Wilmont's 'The Distant Barking of Dogs'.
"Acting showcase"
'The Guilty' is nominated in three categories – for European Actor (Jakob Cedergren), European Screenwriter (Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen) and European Discovery Prix Fipresci, the international film critics' prize for a first-time feature film director.
"Above all else, 'The Guilty' is an acting showcase for Cedergren," Indiewire noted about the actor's intense presence in Gustav Möller's debut feature, following a policeman's race against time to save a kidnapped woman, with the phone as his only tool.
'The Guilty' won the Audience Award at its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival and has since met with a warm critical reception across the board. The crime thriller is elected as Denmark's official Oscar submission for the Foreign-Language category.
Lina Flint for Nordisk Film Spring has produced the film with support from the Danish Film Institute's talent scheme New Danish Screen.
Living in the shadows of war
'The Distant Barking of Dogs' is nominated for the title as European Documentary. Since winning IDFA’s best debut feature prize in 2017, the story about Oleg and his grandmother living in the shadow of the war in Eastern Ukraine has taken home 25 accolades around the globe.
The film is also nominated in three categories at the prestigious American IDA Documentary Awards, with the winners being announced in Los Angeles on 8 December.
The documentary is produced by Monica Hellström for Final Cut for Real with backing from the Danish Film Institute.
Co-productions in contention
Ali Abbasi's Swedish feature 'Border', which is co-produced by Danish producer Nina Bisgaard for Meta Film, is nominated in the four categories European Film, Director, Actress (Eva Melander) and Screenwriter (Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf and John Ajvide Lindqvist). The mythical love drama won this year's top prize in Cannes' Un certain regard sidebar.
Danish film professionals are also behind two additional nominees. Jaime Rosales' Spanish-Danish-French drama 'Petra', co-produced by Katrin Pors for Snowglobe, is voted in for European Actress (Bárbara Lennie).
Finally, Danish director Janus Metz' Swedish biopic 'Borg/McEnroe' is nominated for European Actor (Sverrir Gudnason) and the People’s Choice Award.
See the full list of nominations.
