Tilva Ros nominated for best European debut film

Serbian teenage drama Tilva Ros by Nikola Lezaic has been nominated for the EFA Discovery Award 2011. The award is presented annually as part of the European Film Awards to a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film

Winners in the past have included films like Lebanon by Samuel Maoz, Hunger by Steve McQueen, The Band’s Visit by Eran Kolirin, 13 Tzameti by Gela Babluani, Human Ressources by Laurent Cantet, The War Zone by Tim Roth, The Celebration by Thomas Vinterberg and La Vie De Jesus by Bruno Dumont.

Nikola Lezaic’s Tilva Ros is a unpretentious, beautifully shot film, unlike most in Serbian cinema today. It depicts the lives of two small town friends in Serbia who share a love for skateboard culture, their friendship shaken following the visit of a friend who had immigrated to France. The film is partially inspired by the lives of the two lead actors, whom Lezaic discovered in their videos on YouTube.

Apart from Tilva Ros, the nominees for EFA 2011 are Hans Van Nuffel’s Belgian-Dutch co-production Oxygen about two brothers suffering an uncurable illness, Karl Markovics’ Austrian juvenile delinquent drama Breathing, Markus Schleinzer’s Michael, a portrait of a pedophile, from Austria as well, and Mikkel Munch-Fals’s Danish Nothing’s All Bad, an inter-generational caleidoscope on sexuality and relationships.

The award ceremony will be held in Berlin, December 3 2011.

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