German Noms Go To Art House Fare

The nominees for the German Film Prize were presented Friday, with the most popular and biggest-budgeted films all but ignored among the 25 nominations in eight categories.

Reflecting the slant on art house fare, the noms were presented not by a film star or director but by a politician, Minister of Culture Julian Nida-Rumelin.

A nomination is a prize in itself: All the nominees for best picture, best documentary and best children's/young people's film received awards of between 100,000 euros and 250,000 euros ($89,200-$222,969).

In the best picture category, which had six nominees, only one film had wide distribution: Tom Tykwer's "Heaven," starring Cate Blanchett (whose Italian co-star, Remo Girone, picked up a nom for best supporting actor).

The other five films — the romantic comedy "Bella Martha"; Berlin Film Festival favorite "Halbe Treppe" (Halfway Upstairs); "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (Nowhere in Africa), a WWII story about a Jewish family that migrates to Kenya; and two twentysomething dramas, "Das Weisse Rauschen" (White Noise) and "Wie Feuer und Flamme" (Like Fire and Flame) — are all low-budget movies with the weaving camerawork and planned spontaneity of documentaries or Dogme films.

"Afrika" was the only film that came close to the kind of blanket distribution enjoyed by "Heaven," and it also received nominations in almost every category open to it: best director for Caroline Link, best actress for Juliane Koehler and best supporting actor for Matthias Habich.

"Treppe" director Andreas Dresen and the director of suspense drama "Der Felsen," Dominik Graf, filled out the best director category.

The acting nominations were dominated by young up-and-comers, with Daniel Bruehl and Annabelle Lachatte of "Rauschen" in the running for best actor and best supporting actress, and Antonio Wannek of "Feuer" nominated for best actor.

The four acting categories allow for nominations for more than one performance; Bruehl was nominated for his roles in two other films as well as "Rauschen," and Wannek also played the lead in "Felsen"; his female co-star Karoline Eichhorn picked up a nomination as best actress. Another young actress, Marie-Lou Sellem, was nominated for best supporting actress in three films — including one, "Nichts Bereuen" (Regret Nothing), for which Bruehl was also nominated.

But the biggest film of the year and one of the most popular German films of all time, Michael Herbig's Western spoof "Der Schuh des Manitu" (Manitou's Shoe), was not completely ignored.

Producer-director-writer-star Herbig will receive a German Film Prize in Gold at the awards ceremony in Berlin on June 14.

A complete list of nominees can be found at www.hollywood reporter.com.