Notizie

Fifty countries have now announced their Oscar submissions. We usually end with sixty-plus competitors so there's a dozen movies (approximately) left unannounced. The big question marks are Spain (we're guessing Celda 211 nope, Spain chose Even the Rain starring Gael García Bernal) and Italy (we're guessing The Man Who Will Come) since both countries are favorites of Academy voters. We'll know the "official" official list in early October. I've updated all the pages.

Afghanistan to FranceGermany to The NetherlandsNorway to Venezuela (plus finalist list for Uruguay)Two biggies recently announced are Mexico's choice Biutiful which won admirers and haters at Cannes --for the same reasons as director Alejandro González Iñárritu's past efforts have divided -- and China's Aftershock (2010), the country's first homegrown IMAX epic that was a huge hit this summer.

Biutiful is a drama about a man who is dying and his life is falling apart on his way to the grave.

Cologne, Germany -- Roman Polanski's political thriller "The Ghost Writer," Mike Leigh's melancholic drama "Another Year" and Berlin Film Fest winner "Honey" from Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu are among the features on the European Film Academy's 46-title long list for this year's European Film Awards.

Other high-profile films on the Efa long list include Samuel Maoz's Venice Film Fest winner "Lebanon," Stephen Frears' comic-book adaptation "Tamara Drewe" and "Oliver Assayas' five-and-a-half hour terrorist biopic "Carlos."

The 20 countries with the most Efa Members each picked a national feature, with the remaining 12 selected by the Efa selection committee. The 2,300 European Film Academy members will vote for the official nominees, which will be announced at the Sevilla Film Festival in Spain on Nov. 6.

The 23rd European Film Awards will be held in Tallinn, Estonia Dec. 4.

The long list of nominees for the 2010 European Film Awards:

European Film Awards 2010

"3 Seasons In Hell,...

"I don't have to produce Batman," says Simone Bachini from the comfort of a lounge chair in the Italian Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival in his charming, stilted English. "This is a good thing," I think to myself. As much as I enjoyed Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), the most recent epic installment of the Batman legend made famous by DC Comics, I fully recognize the cinema cannot be populated entirely by superhero antics and dilemmas. I get the feeling Simone recognizes this as well, but his valiant effort at communicating in English, which are far more impressive than my Italian, prevent him from elaborating. Simone is one half of the dynamic duo who runs Arancia Film, which most recently produced Giorgio Diritti's L'Uomo Che Verrà (The Man Who Will Come), the recipient of the Best Producer...