08/11/2002 - The European Film Academy announces the films, directors and actors in competition for the 2002 European Film Awards scheduled to take place on 7 December in Rome

8 films all of which have won important awards at various European festivals are in competition for the Best European Film award. They are The Pianist by Roman Polanski (France), 8 Women by François Ozon (France), Bend it Like Beckham by Gurinder Chadha (UK), Bloody Sunday by Paul Greengrass (UK/Ireland), Habel con ella (Speak to Her) by Pedro Almodovar (Spain), Lilja 4-Ever by Lukas Moodysson (Sweden), Mies Vailla Menneisyyttä (The Man Without A Past – Finland/Germany/France) and The Magdalene Sisters by Peter Mullan (UK).
The nominees in the Best Director category are France’s Roman Polanski, Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki, Germany’s Andreas Dresen, the US’s Ken Loach, Spain’s Pedro Almodòvar, Italy’s Marco Bellocchio and Russia’s Alexander Sokurov.

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The Best Actor nominees are Spain’s Javier Bardem for Los lunes al Sol<7i> (Mondays in the Sun) and Javier Cámara for Hable con Ella, Italy’s Sergio Castellitto for Mostly Martha and L’ora di religione (My Mother’s Smile), the UK’s Martin Compston for Sweet Sixteen and Timothy Spall for All or Nothing, France’s Olivier Gourmet for Le Fils (The Son) and Finland’s Markku Peltola for Mies Vailla Menneisyytta (The Man Without a Past).
The Best Actress nominees include the entire cast of Ozon’s 8 Women, Russia’s Oksana Akinshina for Lilja 4-Ever, France’s Emmanuelle Devos for Sur mes lèvres (Read my Lips), Germany’s Martina Gedeck for Bella Martha (Mostly Martha), Italy’s Laura Morante for Un viaggio chiamato amore (A Journey Called Love), the UK’s Samantha Morton for Morvern Callar and Finland’s Kati Outinen for Mies Vailla Menneisyytta (The Man Without A Past).