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Press Releases
Shortlist of films announced for fourth 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award 2007
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91Èȱ¬ Four today announces the shortlist for the prestigious 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award, as voted for by the UK's leading film critics, film school heads and festival directors.
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This films on this year's shortlist are:
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Volver - Pedro Almodóvar
(Spain)
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Hidden (Caché) - Michael Haneke
(France/Germany/ Austria/Italy)
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The Child (L'enfant) - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
(Belgium/ France)
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The Beat My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrêté) - Jacques Audiard
(France)
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The Death of Mr Lazarescu (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu) - Cristi Puiu
(Romania)
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Lady Vengeance (Chin-Jeol-Han Geum-Ja-Sssi) - Chan-Wook Park
(South Korea)
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Jonathan Ross, hosts the live award programme on 91Èȱ¬ Four on 25 January 2007.
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He says: "Jean-Luc Godard famously said that cinema was dead.
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"Well, here's six fine films happy to flick a v-sign at the grouchy, gallic genius: a blood bath from South Korea, an eerie French thriller, another great movie from a Spanish master - and that's just for starters.
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"But why nothing from Kazakhstan?"
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Janice Hadlow, Controller, 91Èȱ¬ Four, says:
"Now in its fourth year, the 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award goes from strength to strength.
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"The judges have a large challenge ahead of them in deciding between such a varied and powerful range of films that all deserve recognition."
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The 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award 2007 will take place at the National Film Theatre, London and the event is sponsored by Pioneer GB Limited.
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In January, the National Film Theatre, London and The Filmhouse, Edinburgh, are holding special 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award seasons, when all the shortlisted films will be screened.
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For further details about dates and times, please contact the venues directly.
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91Èȱ¬ Big Screens will be showing a special feature on the nominated films in the two weeks prior to the award.
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More about the award and shortlist can be found at bbc.co.uk/bbcfour.
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Notes to Editors
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This is the fourth 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award. Last year's winner was Downfall, a powerful and compelling drama set in war-torn Germany. The director Oliver Hirschbiegel flew in from Vienna to collect his award.
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The 91Èȱ¬ Four World Cinema Award will be judged by a panel with an expert knowledge of international cinema past and present (such as film makers, actors, critics and writers).
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Previous jury members include actors Gillian Anderson and Robert Carlyle, Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald and singer Björk.
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More details on the judging panel for 2007 will be available shortly.
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Volver
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Vivid proof that Pedro Almodóvar just keeps getting better. A vivacious comedy-of-sorts, Volver (To Return) spans three generations of women.
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"It's a film about the culture of death in my native La Mancha," says its director.
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Carmen Maura plays the deceased in question, mother to two daughters, played by Lola Dueñas and Penelope Cruz (in a bravura performance), herself a mother to a teenager (Yohana Cobo). Here the dead continue to co-exist with the living, and humour and heartfelt emotion are never far away.
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Spain 2006 Dir Pedro Almodóvar J-Cert U 121 mins
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Hidden (Caché)
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Anyone who has seen The Piano Teacher will know that Munich-born director Michael Haneke likes to challenge. What at first seems simply a superior thriller widens psychologically to encompass personal demons and race guilt.
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Daniel Auteuil, a chat show host, enjoys a comfortable life with his wife (Juliette Binoche) and son. When a videotape lands in his letter box all this changes. The tape reveals that their home is being secretly filmed by a hidden camera from across the street. Their nightmare is only just beginning.
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France/Germany/Austria/Italy 2005 Dir Michael Haneke J-Cert 15 118 mins
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The Child (L'Enfant)
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The central event in the Dardenne Brothers' drama - a Palme D'Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival - is shocking. Bruno (Jérémie Renier) is a young, dispossessed petty criminal who fathers a baby with his 18-year-old girlfriend Sonia (Déborah François). Recklessly he sells the child for money.
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The resulting repercussions drive this powerful, compassionate film, as Bruno desperately tries to make amends.
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Belgium/France 2006 Dirs Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne J-Cert 12A 95 mins
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The Beat My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrêté)
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The seemingly irreconcilable worlds of crime and classical music fuse in the character of Thomas Seyr (a charismatic performance by Romain Duris) who has to be a thug for his Parisian property shark father.
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However, there is a more creative side to him battling to emerge, inherited from his long dead mother, a concert pianist, who was determined that he take up music.
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A remake of James Toback's Fingers, director Jacques Audiard fashions a stylish, complex drama which made a star of Duris. Ìý
France 2005 Dir Jacques Audiard J-Cert 15 106 mins
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The Death Of Mr Lazarescu (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu)
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A coal-black comedy drama in which Romanian director Cristi Puiu tells the story of the grumpy, sick, 62-year-old Mr Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) as he is shunted from hospital to hospital, along the way deteriorating a little more, edging just a little closer to death.
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Brilliantly naturalistic and harrowing, Lazarescu displays a curious heroism and Puiu is clear-eyed in portraying what might meet us at the end of our lives.
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Lady Vengeance (Chin-Jeol-Han Geum-Ja-Sssi)
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The concluding installment of Chan-Wook Park's Vengeance trilogy (following the highly successful Oldboy) is, says the director, a "fairytale".
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If so it's a very violent, if lyrical, one with the sensational Lee Yeong-ae at its centre. Having survived the horrors of 13 years of wrongful imprisonment, she becomes a calculating murderer in pursuit of the paedophile who framed her. The results are exciting, morally-challenging and stylish.
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South Korea 2005 Dir Chan-Wook Park 115 mins
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