The Queen leads field at European Film Awards
Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN—British director Stephen Frears’ film “The Queen” could add a basket full of prizes at the European Film Awards on Saturday to the Oscar, Golden Globes and BAFTAs that it has already harvested. “The Queen,” starring Helen Mirren, leads the field of 42 films with six nominations for the European Film Academy’s annual prizes, but it may be challenged by “The Last King of Scotland,” which was nominated in five categories.
The nominations for “The Queen” include best picture, best director, best actress and best screenwriter at Saturday’s ceremony, the 20th anniversary of the European Film Awards. Another favourite at the ceremony is Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” a film that follows two student friends as they are ruthlessly exploited when one goes to have an illegal abortion.
The ceremony will be broadcast to 61 countries around the world. The awards are held in odd years in Berlin, where the European Film Academy is based, and in different European cities in even years.
Last year’s awards were in Warsaw, where “Das Leben Der Anderen” (The Lives of Others), set in Communist East Germany five years before the Berlin Wall fell, won the top prizes. In 2005, French thriller “Cache” (“Hidden”), featuring the pain of facing up to one’s past, was the big winner. In previous years the ceremony has been held in Barcelona (2004), Rome (2002), Paris (2000) and London (1998).
Other films with multiple nominations this year include German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s drama “The Edge of Heaven” and Oliver Dahan’s biopic of French singer Edith Piaf “La Vie en Rose.” German director Tom Tykwer’s box office hit “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” also got four nominations.
The films are judged by 1,800 European Film Academy (EFA) members representing a broad spectrum of the industry. While they have yet to gain the prestige of high-profile European film festivals in Cannes, Venice and Berlin, the awards are widely respected in the film industry and used increasingly in film advertising campaigns around the world.