QUICK TAKES: The 21st EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINEES

61st Cannes Filmfest winners Gomorrah and Il Divo lead the 21st European Film Awards nominees this year with five nods, respectively.

Here is the shortlist of competing films:

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
Entre Les Murs (The Class), Laurent Cantet (France)
Gomorrah, Matteo Garrone (Italy)
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh (U.K.)
Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino (Italy-France)
L'Orfanato (The Orphanage), Juan Antonio Bayona (Spain)
Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman (Israel-Germany-France)

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Laurent Cantet, Entre Les Murs
Matteo Garrone, Gomorrah
Andreas Dresen, Folke 9 (Cloud 9)
Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir
Paolo Sorrentino, Il Divo
Steve McQueen, Hunger (U.K.-Ireland)

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2008
Michael Fassbender in “Hunger”
Thure Lindhardt & Mads Mikkelsen in “Flammen & Citronen” (Flame & Citron)
James McAvoy in “Atonement”
Toni Servillo in “Gomorra” (Gomorrah) and “Il Divo”
Juergen Vogel in “Die Welle” (The Wave)
Elmar Wepper in “Kirschbluten - Hanami” (Cherry Blossoms)

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2008
Hiam Abbass in “Lemon Tree”
Arta Dobroshi in “Le Silence de Lorna” (Lorna’s Silence)
Sally Hawkins in “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Belen Rueda in “El Orfanato” (The Orphanage)
Kristin Scott Thomas in “Il y a Longtemps Que Je T’aime” (I’ve Loved You So Long)
Ursula Werner in “Wolke 9” (Cloud 9)

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2008
Suha Arraf & Eran Riklis for “Lemon Tree”
Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano for “Gomorra” (Gomorrah)
Ari Folman for “Waltz With Bashir”
Paolo Sorrentino for “Il Divo”

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2008
Luca Bigazzi for “Il Divo”
Oscar Faura for “El Orfanato” (The Orphanage)
Marco Onorato for “Gomorra” (Gomorrah)
Sergey Trofimov & Rogier Stoffers for “Mongol”

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY PRIX D’EXCELLENCE 2008
Marton Agh for production design, “Delta”
Magdalena Biedrzycka for costume design, “Katyn”
Laurence Briaud for editing, “Un Conte de Noel”
Petter Fladeby for sound design, “O’Horten”

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2008
Tuur Florizoone for “Aanrijding in Moscou” (Moscow, Belgium)
Dario Marianelli for “Atonement”
Max Richter for “Waltz With Bashir”
Fernando Velazquez for “El Orfanato” (The Orphanage)

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2008
“Hunger,” UK, directed by Steve McQueen
written by Enda Walsh & Steve McQueen
“Snijeg” (Snow), Bosnia and Herzegovina / Germany / France / Iran, directed by Aida Begi
written by Aida Begi and Elma Tataragi
“Tatil Kitabi” (Summer Book), Turkey, written and directed by Seyfi Teoman
“Tulpan,” Germany / Switzerland / Kazakhstan / Russia / Poland, directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy
written by Sergey Dvortsevoy and Gennady Ostrovskiy

Major omissions include one nod (Laurence Briaud for Film Editing) for Arnaud Desplechin's critically praised drama Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale) and zero noms for Oscar 2008 Best Foreign Language Film entries Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments by Jan Troell (Sweden), The Mermaid (Russia), and Revenche by Gotz Spielmann (Austria). Steve McQueen's directorial debut, Cannes Camera d'Or winner Hunger, was cited in three categories including himself (Best European Director) and Michael Fassbender (Best European Actor).

The ceremony will be held at Copenhagen, Denmark on December 2.