23-02-2010

Happiest Girl leads Romania's Gopo nominations

By Iulia Blaga
    Radu Jude's The Happiest Girl In The World topped the nominations for Romania's Gopo national film awards with 11 nominations, followed by Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, adjective with ten nominations. .

    The Gopo prizes (www.premiilegopo.ro), organized by Romanian Film Promotion, takes place on March 29.

    Jude's debut film, a Romanian-Dutch coproduction, was nominee for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Radu Jude and Augustina Stanciu), and Best Leading Actress (Andreea Boşneag), among other categories. Police, adjective received nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actor (Dragoş Bucur), Best Screenplay (Corneliu Porumboiu), and Best Camera (Marius Panduru).

    The Concert/Concertul by Radu Mihăileanu, a French-Romanian-Belgian-Italian co-production, has eight nominations, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Art Direction (Cristian Niculescu). The Romanian-Hungarian-British co-production Katalin Varga has seven nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Peter Strickland), and Best Leading Actress (Hilda Peter).

    The portmanteau movie Tales from the Golden Age directed by Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Hoefer, Constantin Popescu, Răzvan Mărculescu and Cristian Mungiu has six nominations, the same as Floating Things by Mircea Daneliuc. Hooked, the first feature of Adrian Sitaru, The Other Irina by Andrei Gruzsinczki and Gruber's Journey by Radu Gabrea have four nominations each.

    The debut feature Crossing Dates/Întalniri încrucişate by Anca Damian has three nominations. Francesca, the debut of Bobby Păunescu, and Week-end with Mom by Stere Gulea have two nominations each. There are 12 features competing for Gopo awards, which are named after the film that won Romania's first Palme d'Or (1957), A Short History, the short animated film by Ion Popescu Gopo.

    The Romanian film industry prizes are also awarding the best documentary, the best short film and the revelation of the year. For the best European film a jury of film critics has nominated Le Silence de Lorna by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Gomorra by Mateo Garrone, Un conte de Noël by Arnaud Desplechin and Il ya longtemps que je t'aime by Philippe Claudel.

    During the ceremony the Romanian movie with the best position in the box office will receive the Audience Award. For 2009 this is Tales from the Golden Age - Part 1- Comrades, Life is Beautiful! The film produced by Cristian Mungiu sold 26,520 tickets between September 25- December 31, 2009. The next step in order to get the winner is the individual vote of the industry professionals.

    The Gopo awards ceremony is organized by the Romanian Film Promotion together with Babel Communications (www.babel.ro) and the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro).