Controversial director Lars von Trier's apocalyptic drama "Melancholia" leads all films at the 2011 European Film Awards, where it will compete for the top prize with Michel Hazanavicius's black-and-white silent film "The Artist," the Dardenne brothers' "The Kid With a Bike," Aki Kaurismaki''s "Le Havre" and two past Oscar winners, Susanne Bier's Best Foreign-Language Film winner "In a Better World" and Tom Hooper's Best Picture champ "The King's Speech."
In nominations announced on Saturday, Bier, the Dardennes, Kaurismaki, von Trier and Bela Tarr ("The Turin Horse") were named contenders in the European Director category, while acting nominees included Kirsten Dunst (left) and Charlotte Gainsbourg for "Melancholia," Tilda Swinton for "We Need to Talk About Kevin," Jean Dujardin for "The Artist" and Colin Firth for "The King's Speech."
Overall, "Melancholia" dominated the nominations, with eight nominations in the nine announced categories. Five films tied for the second-most nods, with four each: "The Artist," "The Kid With a Bike," "In a Better World," "The King's Speech" and "Le Havre."
The 24th European Film Awards will take place in Berlin on December 2, 2011. The awards are chosen by the European Film Academy, which has more than 2,500 members across Europe.
Past winners include Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The Lives of Others" and Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her."
The nominees:
EUROPEAN FILM 2011
THE ARTIST, France
LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy
HÆVNEN (In a Better World), Denmark
THE KING’S SPEECH, UK
LE HAVRE, Finland/France/Germany
MELANCHOLIA, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2011
Susanne Bier for HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Béla Tarr for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2011
Kirsten Dunst in MELANCHOLIA
Cécile de France in LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in MELANCHOLIA
Nadezhda Markina in ELENA
Tilda Swinton in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2011
Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST
Colin Firth in THE KING'S SPEECH
Mikael Persbrandt in HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Michel Piccoli in HABEMUS PAPAM
André Wilms in LE HAVRE
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2011
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike)
Anders Thomas Jensen for HÆVNEN (In a Better World)
Aki Kaurismäki for LE HAVRE
Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2011
Manuel Alberto Claro for MELANCHOLIA
Fred Kelemen for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)
Guillaume Schiffman for THE ARTIST
Adam Sikora for ESSENTIAL KILLING
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2011
Tariq Anwar for THE KING'S SPEECH
Mathilde Bonnefoy for DREI (Three)
Molly Malene Stensgaard for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2011
Paola Bizzarri for HABEMUS PAPAM
Antxón Gómez for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Jette Lehmann for MELANCHOLIA
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2011
Ludovic Bource for THE ARTIST
Alexandre Desplat for THE KING’S SPEECH
Alberto Iglesias for LA PIEL QUE HABITO (The Skin I Live in)
Mihály Vig for A TORINOI LO (The Turin Horse)