LUX Prize 2011 Final Three: Attenberg, Play and The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Once they were ten. Now they are three. Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg, Robert Guédiguian’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Ruben Östlund’s Play have gone thru into the final round of the European Parliament LUX Prize.

Among the three chosen finalists we have a film about a women discovering her sexuality in an economically starved Greek town and more recently from Cannes, we have the perfectly executed crimes committed and “acted” by pre-teens in an otherwise very tolerant Swedish town. Two stunning features in my books that are indeed perfect examples of how cinema can examine social issues without suffocating itself with taking some by-the-books moral stance. I’ve yet to see Guédiguian’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, but it to was presented at this year’s Cannes Film Fest.

The award will be given out in mid-November, so you can check back with us – as we’ll be curious to see who does claim the prize which will only allow for the given film to receive further exposure in other European nations subtitling financing into the 23 official languages of the European Union (EU).

Worth Noting: Previous winners include: Feo Aladag’s When We Leave (2010), Philippe Lioret’s Welcome (2009), Dardenne’s Lorna’s silence (2008) and Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven.

Do We Care?: We feel invested in this award race, having admired and interviewed both Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (for Attenberg) and Ruben Östlund (for Play).