European Film Award Nominations

BEST FILM

• The Artist 
• In a Better World
• The Kid With the Bike
• The King's Speech
• Le Havre
• Melancholia

BEST DIRECTOR

• Susanne Bier, In a Better World
• Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, The Kid With the Bike
• Aki Kaurismaki, Le Havre
• Bela Tarr, The Turin Horse
• Lars von Trier, Melancholia

BEST ACTOR

• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Colin Firth, The King's Speech
• Mikael Persbrandt, In a Better World
• Michel Piccoli, Habemus Papam
• Andre Wilms, Le Havre

BEST ACTRESS

• Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
• Cecile de France, The Kid With the Bike
• Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Melancholia
• Nadezhda Markina, Elena
• Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

BEST SCREENWRITER

• Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne, The Kid With the Bike
• Anders Thomas Jensen, In a Better World
• Aki Kaurismaki, Le Havre
• Lars von Trier, Melancholia

BEST CINEMATOGRAHY

• The Artist
• Essential Killing
• Melancholia
• The Turin Horse

BEST FILM EDITING

• The King's Speech
• Melancholia
• Three

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Habemus Papam
• Melancholia
• The Skin I Live In

BEST SCORE

• The Artist
• The King's Speech
• The Skin I Live In
• The Turin Horse

Favorites from Cannes and two Oscar winners from last year dominate this years European Film Award nominees, as The Artist, The Kid With the Bike, Le Havre, and Melancholia all had a nice show alongside last years Foreign Language Oscar winner In a Better World and Best Picture winner The King's Speech rounded out the top honors field...what the hell, a year later and a stuttering Colin Firth is still being fetted by awards societies?@!%  The cool thing is that some of these might actually have a fair showing in this years race (Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer won the top prize last year) as The Artist will get the big Weinstein-endorsed awards treatment when it opens later this month (and deserves so much...I heart it), Le Havre is the Finnish Oscar selection, and opened in limited engagement two weeks ago, Melancholia can be seen in theaters in two weeks, or in your living room as we speak...sadly stateside, non-festival going movie fans will have to wait on the Dardenne Brothers latest The Kid With the Bike, and Belgium decided to not pick it as their Oscar selection this year.  Also kinda cool is the Best Actress field includes two Oscar dark horses with Kirsten Dunst and Tilda Swinton.