Four Debut Films Nominated For European Discovery 2007

Nominations were determined by a committee comprised of FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics) members Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark), Marco Lombardi (Italy) and Dana Linssen (the Netherlands) and EFA Board members Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Stefan Laudyn (Poland).
From a total of 63 submitted films, they have selected four nominations:

• BIKUR HA-TIZMORET (The Band’s Visit) by Eran Kolirin, Israel
• CONTROL by Anton Corbijn, UK. Released in the UK on 5 October 2007
• GEGENÜBER (Counterparts) by Jan Bonny, Germany
• TAKVA (A Man’s Fear of God) by Özer Kiziltan, Turkey/Germany

In 'The Band's Visit' a small Egyptian police band gets stranded in a lost Israeli town in the middle of nowhere. The film won this year’s Israeli Film Academy Award and also received the Coup de Coeur award at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. 'Control' re-tells the last years of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic lead singer of English post-punk band Joy Division, and was the opening film of this year’s Quinzaine in Cannes. 'Counterparts' witnesses the loss of a carefully maintained façade of an intact family life and was also screened at the Cannes Quinzaine. And 'A Man's Fear Of God' tells the story of Muharrem, an extremely devout Muslim, whose beliefs are upset by temptation and the modern world. The film received various festival awards, among them the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film and the critics’ prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
As part of the European Film Awards, the category European Discovery is presented to a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film.
The nominated films will now be made available to all 1,800 members of the European Film Academy.
They will vote for the winner who will be announced at the 20th European Film Awards on 1 December in Berlin.
(DS)