Ida movie competes for EU Parliament LUX Prize

Ida (press materials)

Silvia Costa, president of the parliament's committee on culture, announced the final short-list on Tuesday.

The LUX Prize, which was launched in 2007, is intended to promote works “that go to the heart of the European public debate.”

Pawlikowski's film, which is set in the early 1960s, explores the aftermath of the Holocaust through a novice at a Polish nunnery who discovers that her parents were Jewish.

As part of the LUX Film Days from mid-October to December 2014, the three films will travel Europe, being screened at 40 cities and 18 festivals.

In instances where subtitles have yet to be created, new prints will be made so that the films can be watched in all 24 countries of the EU.

Finally, the 751 MEPS across the union will be invited to vote on the best film, with the winner announced on 17 December at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Besides Ida, the other two films competing are Slovenian movie Class Enemy (Razredni Sovraznik), directed by Rok Bicek, and French film Girlhood (Bande de Filles), by Celine Sciamma.

The final three were chosen from 10 nominees announced at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, earlier this month.

Ida has been one of the biggest success stories of Polish cinema in recent years, winning numerous festival awards and become one of the most lucrative Polish movies at the US box office since the fall of the Iron Curtain. (nh)