Tsangari, Guédiguian and Östlund shortlisted for European LUX Prize

Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg, Robert Guédiguian’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Ruben Östlund’s Play have been selected to compete for this year’s European Parliament LUX Prize.

The three films, which will screen at the upcoming Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days section, were chosen from a longlist of ten films which also included Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing, Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papum and Ari Kaurismaki’s Le Havre.

Tsangari’s Greek film Attenberg tells the story of a young woman growing up in a factory town by the sea. It has been proposed as the official Greek entry for the next Oscars. It won the special jury award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

French director Robert Guédiguian’s The Snows of Kilimandjaro is about a couple, played by Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin, who are kidnapped when they go on a trip to Kilimanjaro. The film was inspired by Victor Hugo’s poem How Good Are The Poor.

Ruben Östlund’s Swedish-French-Danish co-production Play is based on real cases of bullying in Gothenburg and stars Anas Abdirahman, Sebastian Blyckert, Yannick Diakité and Sebastian Hegmar.

The prize will finance the subtitling of the winning film into the 23 official languages of the European Union (EU), including the adaptation of the original version for hearing or visually-impaired people. It will also cover supplying a digital cinema package or a 35 mm print in the 27 EU’s member states.

The winner will be unveiled at an award ceremony in Strasbourg on November 16 after the films have been watched by the members of the European Parliament.

Last year’s winning film was Feo Aladag’s German film When We Leave.