Fish Tank, Everyone Else, Dogtooth, Police Adjective, A Prophet and White Ribbon are just a half a dozen titles among the 48 films that have a shot at being nominated among several categories for 22nd The European Film Awards.
Many would say that at this year's Academy Awards got the documentary film category "right". The "right" doc film won and even the final nominees were worthy mentions. But all this doesn't make the Cinema Eye Honors mission less "important".
Apart from the world premiere of Michael Cuesta's Tell-Tale and one more festival screening and chance to shine for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Still Walking, the selections are comprised of unknown projects, New York-based film productions that were completed in the last year, a bunch of films that receive a May theatrical release anyways and a batch of better than average films that were showcased at Sundance.
So how does Yojiro Takita's Departures (Okuribito) beat out heavy favorites Israel's Waltz With Bashir and France's The Class? Smart pick ups and adequate marketing plans just don't cut it when it comes to promoting titles for Oscar campaigns and Sony Pictures Classics seemed to have botched, undersold both titles the moment the final five titles were announced.
The National Board of Review announced some good news for fans of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and great news for fans of David Fincher. Slumdog Millionnaire is officially tapped as a lead contender for an Oscar bid and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won't go unnoticed as some people have speculated.