Broken Circle Breakdown, La Grande Bellezza lead EFA nominations

Over the weekend, the European Film Academy announced the nominations for their European Film Awards in the most important categories. While these usually don’t have much bearing on the race to Oscar, it’s still interesting to see how these pan out for some of the hopefuls in the Best Foreign Language category.

Leading with five nominations for instance is Belgium’s The Broken Circle Breakdown. Will this translate to a nomination for the big one? So far, the film has resonated with most audiences it has played for (it won two award at Tribeca, for instance, for lead actress Baetens and the screenplay), and it seems to fit well into AMPAS’ wheelhouse. Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza is looking to give Italy another nomination, and scoring four of them here is a good start (it also already won Best Editing earlier). Will the film win over the Academy as well? It would be a more adventurous choice than most.
The most interesting situation here, and one that isn’t entirely clear, is that of Blue Is The Warmest Color, the only film of these nominations that seems to be in the running for above-the-line nominations with AMPAS (albeit longshots) in Best Actress (Exarchopoulos) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was apparently originally ineligible, yet somehow made it into Best Picture and Best Director, but not into Best Actress or Best Screenplay. What gives? A possible explanation has been given by Guy Lodge at In Contention (check his comments section). Whatever the reason for the snub, it’s an odd one for a film that is so driven by its performances.

BEST PICTURE
The Best Offer
Blancanieves
Blue is the Warmest Color
The Broken Circle Breakdown
La Grande Bellezza
Oh Boy!

BEST DIRECTOR
Pablo Berger, Blancanieves
Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color
Francois Ozon, In the House
Paolo Sorrentino, La Grande Bellezza
Giusseppe Tornatore, The Best Offer
Felix Van Groeingen, The Broken Circle Breakdown

BEST ACTOR
Johan Hendelberg, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Jude Law, Anna Karenina
Fabrice Luchini, In the House
Tom Schilling, Oh Boy!
Toni Servillo, La Grande Bellezza

BEST ACTRESS
Verle Baetens, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Luminita Gheorgiu, Child’s Pose
Keira Knightley, Anna Karenina
Barbara Sukowa, Hanna Arendt
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

BEST SCREENPLAY
Anna Karenina
The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Best Offer
La Grande Bellezza
In the House

BEST COMEDY
I’m So Excited!
Love is all You Need
The Priest’s Children
Welcome Mr. President

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Act of Killing
The Missing Picture
Stop-over

BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Congress
Jasmine
Pinochio