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Press Releases Jonathan Ross to present fifth ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award

Category: ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four; Scotland; Factual & Arts TV
Date: 27.11.2007
Printable version

Celebrating the wealth of contemporary international film-making and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four's commitment to international cinema, the channel today announces the shortlist of nominations for the fifth ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award.

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Over 200 UK-wide film critics chose one title each from the list of 186 foreign language films released in the UK in 2007.

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A specially-assembled jury, with TV presenter and film critic Jonathan Ross moderating, will debate the films and select an overall winner in January 2008.

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The winner will receive the award at a special television ceremony at the BFI Southbank in London, to be broadcast on Saturday 2 February.

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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award shortlist:

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• The Lives Of Others (Leben Der Anderen, Das)
  Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany
  Academy Award-winning debut feature film about the horrifying, sometimes unintentionally funny, system of surveillance in the former East Germany. Stars Ulrich Mühe who died from stomach cancer this summer aged 53.
  
  
• The Science Of Sleep (Science Des Rêves, La)
  Director: Michel Gondry, France/Italy/USA
  Gael García Bernal plays a man lovestruck by a charming French woman (Charlotte Gaisbourg), whilst entranced by his dreams and imagination in this surreal Cannes Film Festival winner.
  
  
• Climates (Iklimler)
  Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France
  This poignant film about two lonely and troubled people struggling to reach each other portrays the strained relationship between a melancholic university professor (Ceylan) and his younger, TV-business wife. Nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, it won the FIPRESCI Award there.
  
  
• Pan's Labyrinth (Laberinto del Fauno, El)
  Director: Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain/USA
  The writer/director sets his film – which picked up three Academy Awards – in the fascist Spain of 1944, when the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
  
  
• Syndromes And A Century (Sang Sattawat)
  Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria
  This is a story about the Thai director's parents, both doctors, and his memories about growing up in a hospital environment. Banned in his native Thailand, it was nominated for an award at the Venice Film Festival.

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Host of the award programme, Jonathan Ross says: "On display here is exciting new work by directors who are prepared to push the possibilities of film to the limit.

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"In the cases of The Lives Of Others and Syndromes And A Century are directors – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Apichatpong Weerasethakul – who are prepared to push my powers of pronunciation to the limit as well."

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As part of the fifth anniversary season of the World Cinema Award, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four will screen five previously-nominated feature films on Saturday evenings, including:

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• Good Bye Lenin! and Bad Education – Saturday 19 January 2008
  
  
• Spirited Away and Belleville Rendezvous* – Saturday 26 January 2008
  
  
• ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award 2008 – Saturday 2 February 2008. Followed by Look At Me (Comme Une Image)

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*Belleville Rendezvous was the first World Cinema Award winner in 2004 and will be preceded by a ten-minute short of the jury chat from that year, featuring Jonathan Ross discussing the film with Bjork, Mike Figgis, Robert Carlyle and Alex Cox.

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Please check schedules for up-to-date information closer to transmission.

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In conjunction with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award, selected cinemas including the BFI Southbank (London), The Cornerhouse (Manchester) and the Filmhouse (Edinburgh) will be showing the five shortlisted films in December and January.

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Details of the screenings will be available on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four website. Check local listings for other UK screenings of the shortlisted films.

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The fifth annual ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award event – sponsored by Pioneer – will be held on Wednesday 30 January 2008 and shown in a special programme on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four on Saturday 2 February 2008.

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Notes to Editors

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• The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award will be judged by a panel of three people with an expert knowledge of international cinema past and present (former jurors have included Gillian Anderson, Kevin MacDonald, Bjork and Peter Capaldi). More details on the judging panel will be announced shortly.
  
  
• Pioneer sponsors the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award.
  
  
• 2007 award-winner: The Death Of Mr Lazarescu (Dir: Cristi Puiu, Romania).
  Nominated: The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Dir: Jacques Audiard, France); The Child (Dirs: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France); Hidden (Dir: Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria/Italy); Lady Vengeance (Dir: Chan-Wook Park, South Korea); and Volver (Dir: Pedro Almodovar, Spain).
  
  
• ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four is a free-to-air digital channel, which has put international cinema at the heart of its schedule since its launch in March 2002, and now concentrates on airing seasons of film premieres and classic foreign language films.
  
  
• Allan Campbell is the producer of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four World Cinema Award, a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland production.

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LK

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