European Film Awards

EUROPEAN FILM: Ida
DIRECTOR: Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida
ACTOR: Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
SCREENWRITER: Pawel Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Ida
ANIMATED FEATURE: The Art of Happiness
DOCUMENTARY: Master of the Universe
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski, Ida
COSTUME DESIGNER: Natascha Curtius-Noss, The Dark Valley
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Claus-Rudolf Amler, The Dark Valley
EDITOR: Justine Wright, Locke
COMPOSER: Mica Levi, Under the Skin
SOUND DESIGNER: Joakim Sundström, Starred Up
SHORT FILM: The Chicken
EUROPEAN COMEDY FILM: The Mafia Only Kills In Summer- directed by Pierfrancesco Diliberto  
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY: The Tribe- directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT: Steve McQueen 
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Agnés Varda
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD: Ida

European Film Award Nominations

Ida earns the most 2014 European Film Award nods.

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Nymphomaniac - Director's Cut
Winter Sleep

BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY
Carmina y Amén
The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer
Le Week-End

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Winter Sleep
Steven Knight, Locke
Ruben Ostlund, Force Majeure
Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida
Paolo Virzi, Human Capital
Andrey Zvyagintsev, Leviathan

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson, Calvary
Tom Hardy, Locke
Alexey Serebryakov, Leviathan
Stellan Skarsgard, Nymphomaniac - Director's Cut 
Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Marian Alvarez, Wounded
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nymphomanic - Director's Cut
Agata Kulesza, Ida
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Human Capital
Agata Trzebuchowska, Ida  

BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Winter Sleep
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Two Days, One Night
Steven Knight, Locke
Pawel Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Ida
Andrey Zvyagintsev, Oleg Negin, Leviathan

BEST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
Just the Right Amount of Violence
Master of the Universe
Of Men and War
Sacro Gra
Waiting for August
We Come as Friends 

BEST EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE 
The Art of Happiness  
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
Minuscule - Valley of the Lost Ants

BEST EUROPEAN SHORT FILM
The Chicken
The Chimera of M.
Daily Bread
Dinola
Emergency Calls
Little Block of Cement with Dishevelled Hair Containing the Sea
The Missing Scarf
Pride
Shipwreck
Still Got Lives
Summer 2014
Taprobana
A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log
Wall

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY
'71
10,000 KM
Party Girl
The Tribe
Wounded    

European Film Awards

BEST FILM: The Great Beauty
BEST DIRECTOR: Pablo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty
BEST ACTOR: Toni Servillo, The Great Beauty
BEST ACTRESS: Veerle Baetens, The Broken Circle Breakdown
BEST SCREENWRITER: François Ozon, In the House
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: The Congress
BEST DOCUMENTARY: The Act of Killing
BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY:  Love is All You Need
BEST COMPOSER: Ennio Morricone, The Best Offer
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: Asaf Sudry, Fill the Void
BEST FILM EDITOR:  Cristiano Travaglioli, The Great Beauty
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Sarah Greenwood, Anna Karenina
BEST COSTUME DESIGNER: Paco Delgado, Blancanieves
BEST SOUND DESIGNERS: Matz Muller & Erik Mischijew, Paradise: Faith

European Film Award Nominations

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
The Best Offer (Italy)
Blancanieves (Spain/France)
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belguim)
The Great Beauty (Italy/France)
Oh Boy! (Germany)

BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY
I'm So Excited (Spain)
Love is All You Need (Denmark) 
The Priest's Children (Croatia/Serbia)
Welcome Mr. President! (Italy) 

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Pablo Berger, Blancanieves
Felix van Groeningen, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color
François Ozon, In the House
Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty
Guiseppe Tornatore, The Best Offer

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR
Johan Heldenbergh, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Jude Law, Anna Karenina
Fabrice Luchini, In the House
Tom Schilling, Oh Boy!
Toni Servillo, The Great Beauty

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Veerle Baetens, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Luminita Gheorghiu, Child's Pose
Keira Knightley, Anna Karenina
Barbara Sukowa, Hannah Arendt
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

European Film Awards Finalists

The 2013 European Film Awards have announced the 46 titles that are in contention for this years ceremony.   Announced by the European Film Academy, this list is a result of a national committee selection.  The European Film Academy is comprised of 2,900 voting members who will determine the nominations; of which will be announced on November 9th.  Recent winners include Amour, Melancholia and The Ghost Writer.  Here are the 2013 finalists:

Anna Karenina (UK)- directed by Joe Wright- Winner of the Costume Design Oscar (Jacqueline Durran)
Araf/Somewhere in Between (Turkey/France/Germany)- directed by Yesim Ustaoglu- Winner of Best Actress at the 2012 Tokyo Film Festival (Neslihan Atagul)
The Best Offer (Italy)- directed by Giuseppe Tornatore- Winner of Best Film at the 2013 Donatello Awards (Italian Oscars)
Betrayal (Russia)
Blancanieves (Spain)- directed by Pablo Berger- Winner of Best Film at the 2013 Goya Awards (Spanish Oscars)
Block 12 (Cypress/Greece)

Borgman (The Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark)- directed by Alex van Warmerdam
Boy Eating the Bird's Food (Greece)- directed by Ektoras Lygizos
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)- directed by Felix Van Groeningen
Burning Bush (Czech Republic)
Child's Pose (Romania)- directed by Calin Peter Netzer- Winner of FIPRESCI Prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival; Romania's submission for the 2014 Oscars
Circles (Serbia)- directed by Srdan Golubovic- Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
The Color of the Chameleon (Bulgaria)- directed by Emil Hristow

The Congress (Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium)- directed by Ari Folman
Crossing Boundaries (Austria)- directed by Florian Flicker
The Deep (Iceland/Norway)- directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Eat Sleep Die (Sweden)- directed by Gabriela Pichler- Winner of the Audience Award of Critic's Week at the 2012 Venice Film Festival
8-Ball (Finland)- directed by Aku Louhimies
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Bosnia and Herzegovina/France/Slovenia)- directed by Danis Tanovic- Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival
The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (Greece)
Fill the Void (Israel)- directed by Rama Burshtein- Winner of the Best Actress (Hadas Yaron) at the 2012 Venice Film Festival; Israel's Oscar submission for the 2013 Academy Awards
The Great Beauty (Italy)- directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Hannah Arendt (Germany/Luxembourg/France/Israel)- directed by Margarethe von Trotta
A Highjacking (Denmark)- directed by Tobias Lindholm
I Belong (Norway)- directed by Dag Johan Haugerud
Imagine (Poland/France/Portugal)- directed by Andrzej Jakimowski
The Impossible (Spain)- directed by J.A. Bayona- Naomi Watts received a Best Actress Oscar nomination

I'm So Excited (Spain)- directed by Pedro Almodóvar
In Bloom (Georgia/Germany/France)- directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon GroB
In the House (France)- directed by Francois Ozon
In the Name Of... (Poland)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)- directed by Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg- Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2013 Oscars
The Last Sentence (Sweden)- directed by Jan Troell
A Long & Happy Life (Russia)- directed by Boris Khlebnikov
My Dog Killer (Slovaka/Czech Republic)- directed by Mira Fornay
Oh Boy! (Germany)- directed by Jan Ole Gerster
Only God Forgives (Denmark/France)- directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Paradise: Faith (Austria/Germany/France)- directed by Ulrich Seidl
The Patience Stone (France/Germany/Afghanistan)- directed by Atiq Rahimi
The Priest's Children (Croatia/Serbia)- directed by Vinko Bresan
Rosie (Switzerland)
The Selfish Giant (UK)- directed by Clio Bernard
A Strange Course of Events (Israel/France)- directed by Raphael Nadjari
Stranger by the Lake (France)- directed by Alain Guiraudie- Winner of the Queer Palm at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
What Richard Did (Ireland)- directed by Lenny Abrahamson

Auspiciously absent from the list is the controversial Palme D'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Color.

European Film Awards

The second signal of major awards strength for Michael Haneke's Amour hits as the top prize winner from Cannes swept the European Film Awards.  The film, which will open in the states, in a few weeks courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, has the makings of a major underdog Oscar performer as it charts a loving elderly couple towards the twilight of their lives.  Haneke, last an Oscar presence in the 2009 Foreign Film race for The White Ribbon has unleashed his most moving and emotional accessible film with Amour that has a chance to hit a chord with Oscar members, assuming enough bother to watch the film.  Now, of course, Cannes and the European Film Awards aren't always great bellwethers for the Academy (last year, the European Film Awards went for Melancholia), but in the world of boosts and bursts of media attention certainly won't hurt the potential love for Amour.  The rest of the slate were holdovers from last year.

Amour's Haneke, Riva and Trintignant all won top prizes-- Oscar nominees?

EUROPEAN FILM OF THE YEAR
Amour

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Michael Haneke, Amour

EUROPEAN ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour

EUROPEAN ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Thomas Vinterberg & Tobias Lindholm, The Hunt

EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Sean Bobbitt, Shame

EUROPEAN EDITOR OF THE YEAR
Joe Walker, Shame

EUROPEAN COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
Alberto Iglesias, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Maria Djurkovic, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
Winter Nomands

EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE OF THE YEAR
Alois Nebel

European Film Awards Nominations

Amour, winner of the Palme D'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival earns 6 European Film Award nominations.

BEST EUROPEAN FILM

• Amour
• Barbara
• Caesar Must Die
• The Hunt
• The Intouchables
• Shame

Not all of these films many seem familiar, at least yet, but most should as Amour from director Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon, Cache) is Austria's official selection from Best Foreign Language Film, as is being positioned by distributor Sony Pictures Classics as a Best Picture nominee-- it's that strong; more on Amour coming soon.  Barbara is Germany's official selection, as Caesar Must Die is Italy's and The Intouchables, the biggest foreign hit in the United States in 2012, is France's.  The Hunt is from Dogma 95 co-inventor Thomas Vinterberg (1998's The Celebration) and of course, Shame is Shame, from 2011.

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR

• Niri Bigle Ceylan, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
• Michael Haneke, Amour
• Steve McQueen, Shame
• Vittorio & Paolo Taviani, Caesar Must Die
• Thomas Vinterberg, The Hunt

Double Best Actor nominee for The Intouchables duo.

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR

• Francois Cluzot & Omar Sy, The Intouchables
• Michael Fassbender, Shame
• Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
• Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS

• Emilie Dequenne, Our Children
• Nina Hoss, Barbara
• Emmanuel Rivas, Amour
• Margarethe Tiesel, Paradise: Love
• Kate Winslet, Carnage

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER

• Michael Haneke, Amour
• Cristian Mungiu, Beyond the Hills (Romania's submission)
• Roman Polanski & Yasmina Reza, Carnage
• Thomas Vinterberg & Tobias Lindholm, The Hunt
• Olivier Nakaache & Eric Toledano, The Intouchables

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Amour
• Faust
• Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
• Shame
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

BEST FILM EDITING

• Caesar Must Die
• The Hunt
• Shame

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Faust
• A Royal Affair
• Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy

BEST SCORE

• The Angel's Share
• A Royal Affair
• Shin Li & the Poet
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Full list here.

European Film Award Winners

EUROPEAN FILM: Melancholia
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR: Suzanne Bier, In a Better World
EUROPEAN ACTOR: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
EUROPEAN ACTRES: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER: Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne, The Kid With the Bike
EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER: Manuel Alberto Claro, Melancholia
EUROPEAN EDITOR: Tariq Anwar, The King's Speech
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Jette Lehmann, Melancholia
EUROPEAN COMPOSER: Ludovic Bource, The Artist
DOCUMENTARY: Pina
ANIMATED FEATURE: Chico & Rita

Melancholia, Lars von Trier's rapturously beautiful end of the world take won top honors at the European Film Awards, scooping up three prizes, despite being snubbed for director and leading lady Kirsten Dunst.  Tilda Swinton appears, possibly a formidable contender, following her leading actress victory from the National Board of Review two days ago, while leftovers from last year made an impression with In a Better World (last years Foreign Film Oscar winner) winning the director's prize, and that old menace The King's Speech winning leading actor and film editing, in a hopeful nod that this will be the very last time this is mentioned by an awards governing body ever again!

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.

European Film Awards

The Ghost Writer sweeps:

EUROPEAN FILM
THE GHOST WRITER
directed by Roman Polanski
written by Robert Harris & Roman Polanski

EUROPEAN 
SCREENWRITER
Robert Harris & Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN ACTOR
Ewan McGregor in THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Sylvie Testud in LOURDES

EUROPEAN COMPOSER
Alexandre Desplat for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Albrecht Konrad for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN EDITOR
Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier for CARLOS


CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD
Giora Bejach for LEBANON

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
THE ILLUSIONIST
directed by: Sylvain Chomet

EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD – Prix EURIMAGES
Zeynep Özbatur Atakan

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST EUROPEAN FILM
MR. NOBODY
written and directed by Jaco van Dormael

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA
Gabriel Yared

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY – PRIX ARTE
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Nostalgia for the Light)
Directed by: Patricio Guzmán

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM
HANOI – WARSZAWA (Hanoi – Warsaw)
by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY – Prix FIPRESCI
LEBANON
written & directed by Samuel Maoz
produced by Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, David Silber, Uri Sabag, Einat Bickel, Benjamina Mirnik & Illan Girard

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Bruno Ganz

European Film Awards Nominations

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
The Ghost Writer
Honey
Lebanon
Of Gods & Men
The Secret in Their Eyes
Soul Kitchen

I'm guessing most are familiar with Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, which topped all nominees with the European Film community, and I suppose stands a chance at some longshot Oscar nods.  Honey (Bal) won the top prize at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, and Lebanon (which got a teeny tiny U.S. release earlier this year) won last year's top prize at the Venice Film Festival.  The Secret in Their Eyes famously won this year's foreign film Oscar, so this is it's awards curtain call.  Look out for Of Gods & Men, however which is France's official selection for the foreign language Oscar.  Soul Kitchen is the latest film from the acclaimed director of Head-On, Fatih Akin.

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Olivier Assayas, Carlos
Paolo Virzi, The First Beautiful Thing
Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Semih Kaplanoglu, Honey
Samuel Maoz, Lebanon

Assayas, the French provocateur of the acclaimed Irma Vep and demonlover, received director honors for the 5-hour Carlos, biography of Carlos the Jackal, the Venezuelan terrorist.  The acclaimed film opened recently in the U.S., but will not be eligible for Oscar consideration, since it premiered on the Sundance Channel.

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR
Jakob Cedergren, Submarino
Elio Germano, Our Life
Ewan McGregor, The Ghost Writer
George Pistereanu, If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
Luis Tosan, Cell 211

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Zrinka Cvitesic, On the Path
Sibel Kekilli, When We Leave
Lesley Manville, Another Year  ------->
Sylvie Testud, Lourdes
Lotte Verbeek, Nothing Personal

Manville, an Oscar contender for Mike Leigh's Another Year is causing quite the category confusion already...the BIFA awarded her a supporting actress nomination, whereas her she's lead.  Of course the European Film Awards don't have supporting acting categories, so perhaps a moo point.

BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
Jorge Guerricaechevarria & Daniel Monzon, Cell 211
Radu Milhaileanu, The Concert
Robert Harris & Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Samuel Maoz, Lebanon

BEST EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE
The Illusionist
Planet 51
Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage

BEST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
Armadillo
Nostalgia for the Light
Steam of Life

BEST EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER
Bans Ozbicer, Honey
Pavel Kostomarov, How I Ended This Summer
Giora Bejach, Lebanon
Caroline Champetier, Of Gods & Men

BEST EUROPEAN FILM EDITOR
Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier, Carlos
Herve de Luze, The Ghost Writer
Arik Lahav-Leibovich, Lebanon

BEST EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Albrecht Konrad, The Ghost Writer
Paola Bizzarri & Luis Ramirez, I, Don Guiovanni
Markku Patila & Jaagup Roomet, The Temptation of St. Tony

BEST EUROPEAN COMPOSER
Gary Yershon, Another Year
Alexandre Desplat, The Ghost Writer
Ales Brezina, Kawasaki's Rose
Pasquale Catalano, Loose Cannons

European Film Awards

BEST PICTURE
The White Ribbon

BEST DIRECTOR
Michael Hanake, The White Ribbon

BEST ACTOR
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet

BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SCREENPLAY
The White Ribbon-- Michael Hanake

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Anthony Dod Mantle-- Slumdog Millionaire & Antichrist

BEST COMPOSER
Alberto Iglesias, Broken Embraces

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Slumdog Millionaire

The Euro Oscars have spoken, and given praise to Michael Hanake (Cache, and The Piano Teacher and Funny Games fame), whose latest Holocaust drama opens courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics in a couple of weeks. Always been a critical favorite and many time the recipient of top awards at the Cannes Film Festival, but Oscar has never bitten.