News

COLOGNE, Germany -- Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha", a dramatic re-enactment of a real-life massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines, was the surprise winner of this year's Emden-Norderney film festival, taking the Bernhard Wicki prize for best film and the DGB Film prize for work that engages with social or political issues.

"Haditha" beat out Anand Tucker's family drama "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" for the top prize.

Kinowelt has acquired "Haditha" for German release.

LONDON -- The best actor category for the 10th annual British Independent Film Awards spans the generations, with newcomer Sam Riley, Jamie Bell, Cillian Murphy, Viggo Mortensen and Jim Broadbent slugging it out for the prize, organizers said Tuesday.

The actor nod is one of 17 plaudits that will be dished out at a Nov. 28 ceremony at the Roundhouse in London.

Anton Corbijn's Control leads the main award categories with nominations for best director, British independent film, screenplay and Riley's turn in the actor category. Both Samantha Morton and Toby Kebbell occupy a spot in the best supporting actor/actress category also.

But Morton and Kebbell will have to overcome each other and strong challenges from Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal); Armin Muehler Stahl, who joins Mortensen from the Eastern Promises cast; and Colin Firth, who stars opposite Broadbent in And When Did You Last See Your Father? to win that particular plaudit.

Corbijn will slug it out with David Mackenzie, helmer of Bell starrer Hallam Foe, Anand Tucker (And When), Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) and Cronenberg (Promises) in the directing category.

TORONTO -- Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American and Latin American rights to director Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father? The project is based on a memoir by British author Blake Morrison and will star Colin Firth as Morrison as he comes to terms with his relationship with his dying father, Arthur (Jim Broadbent). The screenplay by David Nichols also includes flashbacks to the author's youth as he summons up memories of his father. The project, which begins filming next month, is set in the Yorkshire Dales and London and was developed as part of the U.K. Film Council Super-Slate initiative in association with Film4, Intandem Films and the Irish Film Board. Producing are Number 9 Films' Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen.