As announced at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, the fiction short DIARCHIA (Diarchy) has been selected by the festival’s international jury for a nomination for the 23rd European Film Awards. There are now thirteen short films already nominated for European Film Academy Short Film 2010, an award presented in co-operation with a network of festivals across Europe.

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The nominees for 2010 so far are

DIARCHIA
(Diarchy)
by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino
Italy 2009, 20 min., fiction
The nominated short film at the Locarno Int’l Film Festival starring Alba Rohrwacher, Riccardo Scamarcio and Louis Garrel tells the story of two young men, Giano and Luc, who hardly know each other. They are traveling through a wood when a sudden storm breaks, forcing them to take shelter in Luc’s spacious villa. With the ice broken, they start wrestling playfully, but suddenly, an accident happens. Panic-stricken, Giano doesn’t know whether Luc is knocked out or dead. Unexpectedly, Luc’s sister arrives home.

RENDEZ-VOUS À STELLA-PLAGE
by Shalimar Preuss
France 2009, 18 min., fiction
The Sarajevo nominee is a balanced story about loneliness and how everyone tries to fight it in their own way. In a cemetary, a public telephone rings. A young couple is passing and takes the call. On the other end of the line a mother wants to talk to her daughter. The young woman takes the game one step further and pretends to be the daughter.

TALLERES CLANDESTINOS
by Catalina Molina
Austria/Argentina 2010, 40 min., fiction
In the nominee selected at the Int’l Short Film Festival in Vila do Conde, a young Bolivian woman leaves her husband and child behind when she goes to Argentina to work as a seamstress. It doesn’t take long for the illusion of financial gain to burst – Juana is being exploited and working conditions become unbearable. Director Catalina Molina takes a realistic look at her protagonist and modern-day slavery, empathetic but without any illusions, and points out the drastic exploitation primarily in minor gestures, intimate moments and her direction.

HANOI – WARSZAWA
by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
Poland 2009, 30 min., fiction
The short film nominee selected at the Norwegian Short Film Festitval in Grimstad is dealing with the fate of illegal immigrants from Vietnam who try to settle in Poland. Among them is young Mai Anh, whose boyfriend now works at a bazaar in Warsaw. Their meeting in a foreign country will not transpire as they had imagined.

MARÍA’S WAY
by Anne Milne
UK/Spain 2009, 16 min., documentary
Selected at the Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival, this documentary short observes Maria who is positioned on a famed pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, whose calling is to sit by the narrow thoroughfare greeting and counting the travelers as they pass by. A humorous approach to modern pilgrimage.

TUSSILAGO
by Jonas Odell
Sweden 2010, 15 min., animation
The Cracow nominee is a beautifully animated documentary short film about “A”, the ex-girlfriend of West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher. Kröcher was leading a group planning to kidnap politician Anna-Greta Leijon and was arrested on March 31, 1977.A number of suspects were arrested in the days following. One of them was “A”. In “Tussilago”, she tells her side story.

LUMIKKO
(The Little Snow Animal)
by Miia Tervo
Finland 2009, 19 min., documentary
In the Tampere short film nominee, a 16-year-old girl calls a radio night talk show, telling the host about her miserable life. In a unique associative mixture of fiction, documentary, animated scenes and music, the film captures the inner universe of a troubled teenager struggling with the consequences of her deeds.

VENUS VS ME
by Nathalie Teirlinck
Belgium 2009, 27 min., fiction
The short film nominee selected at the Berlin Int’l Film Festival deals with twelve-year-old Marie who has problems putting her childhood behind her. Ever since her young mother brought home a new boyfriend, Marie’s questions have gone unanswered and communication would seem to be impossible. Marie desperately tries to win back her mother for herself, at the same time seeking comfort in the world of her memories.

ØNSKEBØRN
(Out Of Love)
by Birgitte Stærmose
Denmark 2009, 29 min., documentary fiction
Selected at the Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam, this documentary short tells a gripping story about the experiences of children in an unreal-looking Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, told in an unorthodox way.

AMOR
by Thomas Wangsmo
Norway 2009, 14 min, fiction
The Ghent short film nominee is about a young man who makes a most untraditional living. In a city where young, rich people will spend whatever it takes to get what they want, Thomas provides them with a service no one else will. And loathes himself for doing it.

DER AMPELMANN
(Lights)
by Giulio Ricciarelli
Germany 2009, 14 min, fiction
In this comedy short, nominated at the Valladolid International Film Festival, a bored cop in the middle of nowhere wants to prove himself. He sets up traffic lights at a lonely bridge, messing up the villagers’ routine with his new rules. With dry slapstick, the film mildly pokes fun at the eye of the law.

LES ESCARGOTS DE JOSEPH
(Joseph’s Snails)
by Sophie Roze
France 2009, 12 min, animation
The Cork short film nominee is a charming and beautifully animated story about a shy, introverted little boy who collects snails. One day he gets swallowed up by his own belly-button and discovers the disturbing world of the ‘navel-gazers’- and with that the importance of others. The film displays exquisite technical control, whilst maintaining a delicate and human touch throughout.

BLIJF BIJ ME, WEG
(Stay, Away)
by Paloma Aguilera Valdebenito
The Netherlands 2009, 24 min, fiction
The Angers short film nominee is an authentic family drama about a single mother and her teen-aged daughter who doesn’t get along with her mother’s new lover. Their every day life is by fights and jealousy. Only in moments, when she her mother all to herself, the daughter feels safe and happy. Torn between her daughter’s needs and her own, the mother only sees one solution for herself to be happy again and makes a serious decision. Brilliantly acted and true in every little gesture, this drama is highly moving despite its brevity.

The final two nominees will be presented in September in co-operation with the Venice International Filmfestival (Italy) and the International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece).

When the annual cycle is completed in September, the nominees will be presented to the over 2,000 members of the European Film Academy and it is they who will elect the overall winner: the European Film Academy Short Film 2010 which will be presented at the 23rd European Film Awards Ceremony on 4 December in Tallinn/Estonia.