10/10/2006

Four debut feature films have been nominated in the European Discovery category of the upcoming European Film Awards: Gela Babluani's French/Georgian co-production 13 Tzameti [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fanny Saadi
interview: Gela Babluani
film profile], Slawomir Fabicki's Retrieval [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Poland), Matthias Luthardt's Pingpong [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Luthardt
interview: Sebastian Urzendowsky
film profile] (Germany) and Agnes Kocsis's Fresh Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Hungary).

The four titles have been screened in several international film festivals over the last year.

13 Tzameti (see focus) – produced by Les Films de la Strada, Quasar Pictures and Solimane Productions – was first seen at Venice 2005, where it received the Lion of the Future, which awards the first feature films presented at the festival. The film later screened at Sundance, where it won the Jury Prize. Paris-based MK2 is handling international sales.

Retrieval was part of this year's Un Certain Regard section at Cannes (see news). It received the Ecumenical Jury Prize and was recently chosen as the Polish candidate in the 2007 Oscar nomination shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film (see news).

Pingpong, a tale in which the fragile stability of a bourgeois family is shaken up by the arrival of a teenage orphan, was part of Cannes sidebar section Critic's Week (see news). It won the SACD Prize and acclaim from critics who saw in it similarties with Pasolini's Teorema. International sales are being managed by Media Luna Entertainment. Kocsis's Fresh Air, another Critics Week title (see news), was also seen at other events and won the Best Film Award in the Brussels European Film Festival. KMH Film is handling international sales.

The nominations were selected by a committee comprised of FIPRESCI (the international association of film critics) members Klaus Eder (Germany), Andrei Plakhov (Russia), and Jean Roy (France), as well as festival directors Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Stefan Laudyn (Poland).

The winner will be announced in Warsaw in December 2.