and Simon Lereng Wilmont's documentary 'A House Made of Splinters' each receive one nomination. The European Film Awards show will take place on December 10 in Reykjavik.
Holy Spider
'Holy Spider' is nominated in the following categories:
- European Film
- European Director (Ali Abbasi)
- European Actress (Zar Amir Ebrahimi)
- European Screenwriter: (Ali Abbasi & Afshin Kamran Bahrami)
'Holy Spider' by Ali Abbasi is set in Iran and is inspired by the true story of a serial killer, who in 2000-2001 "cleaned" the streets of female sex workers. At the centre of the story is a female journalist who descends into the dark underworld of Mashhad, Iran's holiest city, to investigate the murders.
The film attracted strong interest at its world premiere in Cannes Competition, where Zar Amir Ebrahimi received the Best Actress award for her performance. The praise continued at the festival premieres in Telluride, Toronto, London and Busan. The film was picked up by US distributor Utopia and premiered in The States on 28 October.
Iranian-born Ali Abbasi graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2011. He made his feature film debut with the horror film 'Shelley', selected for the Berlinale. His second feature film, the Swedish-Danish fable 'Border', won the main prize in 2018 in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
'Holy Spider' is produced by Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures in co-production with German One Two Films by Sol Bondy.
Interview with director Ali Abbasi and actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi
Godland
Elliott Crosset Hove is nominated as European Actor for his role in Hlynur Pálmason's 'Godland', set in the late 19th century. He portrays a young Danish priest that travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph the local population. The deeper he travels into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, mission and morals.
'Godland' world premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival and has since screened in Telluride, Toronto, London, Chicago and San Sebastián.
Producers are Katrin Pors, Eva Jakobsen and Mikkel Jersin of Snowglobe, in co-production with Anton Máni Svansson of Join Motion Pictures.
A House Made of Splinters
Simon Lereng Wilmont's 'A House Made of Splinters' which received the Sundance Film Festival's award for best directing in the international documentary competition is nominated as Best European Documentary.
The film is set in Eastern Ukraine, where the war takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline. We follow a small group of strong-willed social workers who strive tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create an almost magical safe space for kids to live in while the state authorities and courts decide the future fate of the child and family.
'A House Made of Splinters' is a follow-up to the director's 'The Distant Barking of Dogs' (2017), also bringing us close to the lives of children in war-torn Eastern Ukraine.
Monica Hellström has produced for Final Cut for Real. A company renowned for award-winning documentaries including 'Flee' that won three European Film Awards last year and was later nominated for Oscars in three categories.
Previous Danish winners
At the European Film Awards 2021 Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated documentary 'Flee' won three awards: European Documentary, European Animated Feature Film and the European University Film Award.
In 2020, Thomas Vinterberg's 'Another Round' took home four awards out of four nominations, including for best director and best film. Find the full view of previous Danish winners.
