The Oscar nominations took immediate effect at the European Film Market, where a 10 o'clock screening yesterday of S¿ndagsengler (The Other Side of Sunday) - a Norwegian contender for the Foreign Language award - was crowded by international distributors, including several majors.
"Indeed, an unusual situation," said the film's sales agent Lena Enquist, who had before the Academy's nod licensed the NRK production mainly for TV to Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and South Korea.
Directed by Berit Otto Nessheim, S¿ndagsengler was selected for 12 foreign festivals; it has been awarded at Geneva, Montreal, Palm Springs, San Jose and Tokyo. Its Oscar nomination is only Norway's third - after Arne Skouen's Ni liv (Nine Lives) in 1957 and Nils Gaup's Ofelas/Veiviseren (Pathfinder) in 1987 - against record-holder France, who scored its 29th with Patrice Leconte's Ridicule.
The other film in the Oscars final screening at the market is Russian director Sergei Bodrov's Kavkazski plennik (Prisoner of the Mountains), which had its international premiere last year in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.
"Before the nomination - Russia's second - we had more or less sold the world, except France and a few minor territories," said Helen Loveridge, md of Fortissimo Film Sales. "But it does mean something to us, as we had bonus clauses included in the contracts."
"Shortly after the Academy had published its list, I had a call from Fast Films in Brazil which wanted to buy the Karlovy Vary winner. I could only regret that this time it was not fast enough - Brazil was already sold."
Czech director Jan Sver‡k's nomination for Kolya - his country's first after the split from Slovakia - and Georgia's first, by Nana Djordjadze's A Chef in Love - conclude this year's nominees in the Foreign Language section. J¿rn Rossing Jensen
Oscar nominated actor Armin MŸller-Stahl is making a lightning special visit back to Berlin in order to pick up a coveted Berlinale Kamera. The presentation will be made before the 19.00 Panorama screening of Conversation With the Beast in the Royal Palast. The actor, who is currently tub thumping in the Oscar campaign for Shine, will spend 15 hours in town and head straight back.
The Children's Film Festival was opened yesterday afternoon by Moritz de Hadeln and was backed up by a party in the Urania. De Hadeln said: "We would like to congratulate the Children's Film Festival on its 20th anniversary and also note that it remains one of the core sections of the festival."
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