"Queen" & "King" reign over Europe film awards

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-05 17:01

Helen Mirren in a scene from 'The Queen' in an image courtesy of Miramax Films. [Agencies]

The European Film Academy has handed out six nominations to "The Queen" and five to "The Last King of Scotland" for its 20th annual awards ceremony on December 1 in Berlin.

The Oscar-winning pair will compete for best film at the European Film Awards, along with the Romanian Cannes Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"; the Edith Piaf biopic "La Vie en Rose" and the French cartoon adaptation "Persepolis."

The acting categories are usually the most contested at the EFAs, and -- with the possible exception of Oscar-winner Helen Mirren ("The Queen") -- there is no obvious front-runner.

On the actors front, Ben Whishaw as "Perfume's" super-scented serial killer goes up against James McAvoy, playing Idi Amin's physician in "Last King of Scotland"; Sasson Gabai as a small-town Israeli bemused by a lost Egyptian military band in "Band's Visit"; Elio Germano growing up to a life of crime in "My Brother Is an Only Child;" Miki Manojlovic's sex shop owner in "Irina Palm"; and French veteran Michel Piccoli in Manoel de Oliveira's "Belle Toujours," a sort-of sequel to Louis Bunuel's 1967 classic "Belle de jour."

Mirren could have a run for her money in the actress race. Potential spoilers include Marion Cotillard's stunning transformation into Edith Piaf in "Rose," Marianne Faithfull's tongue-in-cheek turn as an aging sex performer in "Irina Palm" and Anamaria Marinca's portrayal of desperation in "4 Months" as a woman trying to get an illegal abortion in Romania.