18/03/2010

Jiří Chlumský’s Broken Promise and Vlado Balko’s Soul at Peace lead the race for the Slovak Film Academy Awards, with each film receiving nominations in nine categories. They are contending for the Best Feature Award alongside Mira Fornay’s Foxes [+see also:
film review
film profile].

Documentaries also feature prominently in the awards race. Juraj Lehotský’s Blind Loves [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has received six nominations, Peter Kerekes’ Cooking History four, and Jaro Vojtek’s The Border and Marko Škop’s Osadné three each. All four films are vying for Best Documentary, and Kerekes, Škop and Vojtek are also nominated for Best Director

The award for Best Actor may go to Attila Mokos (Soul at Peace), Karel Roden (Bathory [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) or Samuel Spišák (Broken Promise), while the Best Actress Award is a toss-up between Réka Derzsi (Foxes), Anna Friel (Bathory), Ina Gogálová (Broken Promise) and Tereza Nvotová (Mosquitos' Tango).

Soul at Peace, Blind Loves and The Border are competing for Best Screenplay. Best Cinematography nominees include Ján Ďuriš (Broken Promise), Juraj Chlpík (Blind Loves), Martin Kollár (Cooking History) and Martin Štrba (Soul at Peace).

Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Award are Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's Palm d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Oleg Mutu
film profile], Czech director Petr Zelenka's Karamazovs [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Polish veteran Andrzej Wajda's Katyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Wajda
interview: Michal Kwiecinski
film profile].

The Slovak academy accepted submissions from producers whose films were released in 2008 and 2009. Altogether 16 features, 15 feature-length documentaries, five shorts and 12 animated films joined the race.

The winners will be announced April 27.