White Ribbon, Storm favourites for German Critics’ Awards 2009
The German Critics’ Awards, the only prizes in the country awarded exclusively by representatives of the profession (the 300 members of the German Critics’ Federation), will be presented at the Berlinale in nine categories, judged solely on artistic, and not on economic or political, grounds.
This year’s nominations are dominated by two titles: Michael Haneke’s superb The White Ribbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile], which scooped honours at Cannes and the EFA Awards; and Hans-Christian Schmid’s outstanding film Storm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexander Fehling
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
film profile](European Parliament LUX Prize 2009 competition), in which the director pulls off the feat of combining a personal moral dilemma (heightened by excellent performances by Kerry Fox and Anamaria Marinca) with an accurate, nuanced portrayal of the complicated functioning of the International Criminal Tribunal. These films have each been nominated in four categories.
Next in line, with three nominations, is Maren Ade’s Everyone Else [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maren Ade
film profile], which won an award at last year’s Berlinale.
Meanwhile, there are two nominations for Marcus H. Rosenmüller’s delightful La Peinture Nacrée [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Mother-of-Pearl Paint”); Sandra Nettelbeck’s Helen [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Florian Gallenberger’s remarkable John Rabe; Ali Samadi Ahadi’s Salami Aleikum [+see also:
trailer
film profile] [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Alexander Adolph’s I’ve Never Been Happier [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Fatih Akin’s joyful Soul Kitchen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].
The latter film is, however, only competing in the technical categories of Best Cinematography and Best Editing, while the single nomination for Andreas Dresen’s Whisky With Vodka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Dresen
film profile] and for Alain Gsponer’s Lila, Lila [+see also:
trailer
film profile], is in the Best Film category.
(Translated from French)
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