As announced at the International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece), the Italian fiction short THE WHOLLY FAMILY by Terry Gilliam has been selected by the jury for a nomination for the 24th European Film Awards. The annual cycle is completed with this fifteenth short film nominated for European Film Academy Short Film 2011, an award presented in co-operation with a network of festivals across Europe.

The nominees for 2011 are

THE WHOLLY FAMILY
by Terry Gilliam
Italy 2011, 20 min., fiction
In the Drama nominee, an American couple is on a holiday in Naples with their son Jake. During a tour of the city, the couple is constantly arguing because of the caprices of the child and does not realize having lost their son. Jake stopped at a stall, attracted by the carved shapes of Pulcinella… holy images, cribs, horns… strange characters who will accompany Jake on a dreamlike journey between reality and imagination throughout the most hidden places and symbols of Naples.

HYPERCRISIS
by Josef Dabernig
Austria 2011, 17 min., fiction
The Venice nominee shows in meditative and mysterious ways the crisis of a poet. The location is a former Soviet artist’s home. For the jury, the filmmaker “presents a clever, concise examination of creative block and cultural entropy”.

TSE
(Out)
by Roee Rosen
Isreal 2011, 35 min., fiction
The Sarajevo nominee’s central scene depicts a domination/submission thrashing, set in a mundane living room. But in this session, the painful blows meted out by the Dom cause the sub to spew out sentences, all of which are quotes from Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, renowned as one of the most extreme right-wing politicians in the country.

DIMANCHES
(Sundays)
by Valéry Rosier
Belgium 2011, 16 min., fiction
The Vila do Conde nominee reflects on Sundays or how Mankind faces the passage of time. That free time we are trying to fill at all costs. That same time we look at passing by, with laughter or boredom. It’s the second nomination for Valéry Rosier after 2009 for his short film BONNE NUIT.

The Wholly Family by Terry Gilliam

LA GRAN CARRERA

(The Great Race)
by Kote Camacho
Spain 2010, 7 min., fiction
The Grimstad nominee documents the Lasarte horse race of 1914 with its never-before-seen prize for the winning horse. Eight of the best horses and mares in the world have registered. Fans and gamblers from all continents gather to participate in the great event. „The Great Race“ is made up of only one minute of found footage.

PAPARAZZI
by Piotr Bernaś
Poland 2010, 33 min., documentary
The Cracow nominee follows the work of a Polish paparazzo who, just like his Western colleagues, follows the rich and the famous, hunting for sensation. But unlike those in Los Angeles, Polish celebrities lead boring lives. That is why the paparazzo, tempted by big money, decides to play for really high stakes.

APELE TAC
(Silent River)
by Anca Miruna Lăzărescu
Germany/Romania 2011, 30 min., fiction
In the Tampere short film nominee, a man and a woman try to flee Romania. Both need each other, yet there is mutual distrust. One night Gregor finds his doubts confirmed. In the end only hope is left.

ÅTERFÖDELSEN
(The Unliving)
by Hugo Lilja
Sweden 2010, 28 min., fiction
The short film nominee selected at the Berlin Int’l Film Festival is set in a society 30 years after a zombie outbreak when people have got used to living alongside them. Zombies are a cheap source of labour. Zombie-hunter like Katrin and Mark are catching and taming them. Their relationship is already on the verge of falling apart, when Mark brings someone home.

Silent River by Anca Miruna Lăzărescu

I LUPI

(The Wolves)
by Alberto de Michele
Italy/the Netherlands 2010, 17 min., documentary
Selected at the Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam, this documentary short tells the story of a group of 40-to 70-year old thieves from the north of Italy called ‘I Lupi’, the Wolves. The only time they steal is when it`s very foggy. The fog makes everything invisible including them. They rob houses, banks, jewelers, trucks – everything they can profit from. “I Lupi” was made in collaboration with the Wolves.

JESSI
by Mariejosephin Schneider
Germany 2010, 31 min., fiction
In the Angers short film nominee, eleven-year-old Jessi lives with a foster family, her mother is in prison. Her longing for identity takes her back to the village she grew up in. Here she discovers that her search will have to continue beyond the confines of her old life.

DERBY
by Paul Negoescu
Romania 2010, 15 min, fiction
In the Bristol short film nominee is the story of a man who, before dinner, believes he hears his teenage daughter having sex. At dinner, the family gathers around the kitchen table with the girl’s boyfriend present. The father provokes a conversation, which leads the father and the boy to find out that they are fans of the two rival soccer teams of Bucharest.

HÄNDELSE VID BANK
(Incident by a Bank)
by Ruben Östlund
Sweden 2010, 12 min, fiction
This fiction short, nominated at the Cork Film Festival, is a detailed and humorous reconstruction of a failed bank robbery witnessed in June 2006. A realtime study with over 96 people choreographed for the camera.

Little Children, Big Words by Lisa James-Larsson

SMÅ BARN, STORA ORD
(Little Children, Big Words)
by Lisa James-Larsson
Sweden 2010, 12 min, fiction
In the Valladolid short film nominee, an uncomfortable discussion begins when it’s Alex’s turn to tell his seven year old class mates what he wants to be when he grows up. The teacher’s explanation reveals her own story – a story of victim and offender.

BERIK
by Daniel Joseph Borgman
Denmark 2010, 16 min, fiction
The Ghent short film nominee is a short drama about friendship and understanding that takes place in Semey, Kazakhstan. Berik, 33, blind and deformed due to radiation poisoning, spends his days at home alone, while his brother is at work. That is until Adil, 11, the smallest and least popular of the kids in the apartment block, turns up on Berik’s doorstep looking for the local bully’s football, which he has lost.

The nominees will now be presented to the over 2,500 members of the European Film Academy and it is they who will elect the overall winner: the European Film Academy Short Film 2011 which will be presented at the 24th European Film Awards Ceremony on 3 December in Berlin.