Tomas Lunak’s Alois Nebel won the Best Animated Feature prize at the European Film Awards last Saturday (December 1). The underdog title won over the other two, better-known nominees Peter Lord’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits (U.K.) and Ignacio Ferreras Arrugas (Wrinkles) (Spain).
Lunak’s moody, black-and-white film was the Czech Republic’s official entry in the Oscar race in 2011. The rotoscoped pic is based on the graphic novel trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír 99, who also wrote the screenplay. Set in the Czech-Polish border during the fall of the Czech regime, the film centers on a train dispatcher who is haunted by images of wartime central Europe and is treated in a sanitarium.
Other European Film Awards winners included Helen Mirren who took home a special prize for her contributions to world cinema and Michael Haneke’s Palm D’Or-winning feature Amour (France, Germany, Austria), which is also a major contender in the Oscar Best Foreign Feature race this year.
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