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With the absence of Amour it is not a surprise that Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love raised with most top awards as is a good movie, perhaps the best of Seidl's work up to date. Winners are in *BLUE.

1/4/13
Yesterday the Academy of Austrian Film announced their nominations for the current edition and most surprising is the absence of the film that is Austria's submission to Oscar, Amour. As the movie absence is top news let me share the reason why from reliable news sources.

Michael Haneke decided not to enter his French-language drama "after being told it would not be eligible for several top categories". Because is in French and does not meet other criteria (including an Austrian certificate of origin, delegate producer and evidence of "significant Austrian cultural influence") it would only have been considered for "directing, screenplay and editing prizes by AFA". Surprisingly, Haneke's decision is not being described as the result of a fit of pique: instead, the filmmaker has been praised for allowing other local movies a better chance of recognition and is being considered as "a very noble gesture" by his filmmaking peers. So, everyone is happy with the decision; but its undeniable that this situation seems to add more fire to those that question why Amour is Austria and not France's submission to Oscar.

Nevertheless the absence of Amour allowed Florian Fliker's Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries) to pick the most nominations -seven- and Ulrich Seidl's Paradies: Liebe follows with six nods. The AFA ceremony will take place in the ceremonial hall of Vienna's Rathaus on January 23.

These are the nominations.

Best Film
Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries), Florian Flicker
*Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love), Ulrich Seidl
Die Wand (The Wall), Julian Roman Pölsler

Best Director
Florian Flicker for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
Julian Roman Pölsler for Die Wand (The Wall)
*Ulrich Seidl for Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love)

Best Actress
Martina Gedeck in Die Wand (The Wall)
Chirstine Ostermayer in Anfang 80
*Margerethe Tiesel in Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love)

Best Actor
Lars Eidinger for Tabu – Es st die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden
Andreas Lust for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
*Karl Merkatz for Anfang 80

Best Screenplay
*Florian Flicker for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
Julian Roman Pölsler for Die Wand (The Wall)
Ulrich Seidl and Veronika Franz for Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love)

Best Cinematography
*Martin Gschlacht for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
Wolfgang Thaler and Ed Lachman for Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love)
Carsten Thiele for Kuma

Best Costume Design
Cinzia Cioffi for Kuma
Birgit Hutter for Tabu – Es st die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden
*Thomas Olàh for Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World)

Best Makeup
Fabienne Adam and Brigitte Dettling for Tabu – Es st die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden
*Monika Fischer-Vorauer and Michaela Oppl for Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World)
Martha Ruess for Kuma

Best Music
Lorenz Dangel for Die Lebenden
*Eva Jantschitsch for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
Judit Varga for Das Pferd auf dem Balkon

Best Editing
Karina Ressler for Grenzgänger (Crossing Boundaries)
Karina Ressler for Oh Yeah, She Performs!
*Monika Willi for Die Lebenden

Best Art Direction
Andreas Donhauser and Renate Martin for Paradies: Liebe (Paradise: Love)
*Katrin Huber for Kuma
Renate Schmaderer, Enid Löser, Petra Heim and Hajo Schwarz for Die Wand (The Wall)

Best Sound Design
Heinz K. Ebner, Philipp Mosser and Berhard Maisch for Das Pferd auf dem Balkon
*Nils Kirchhoff, Bernhard Maisch and Dieter Meyer for More than Honey
Dietmar Zuson and Tobias Fleig for Die Lebenden

Best Documentary
Evolution der Gewalt (Evolution of Violence), Fritz Ofner
Low Definition Control (Malfunctions #0), Michael Palm
*Der Prozess (The Trial), Gerald Igor Hauzenberger

Best Short Film
Hatch, Christoph Kurschnig
*Unser Lied, Catalina Molina
366 Tage, Johannes Schiehsl

To read info and watch trailers for each film use links at AFA's official site.