The Priest’s Children is nominated side by side to the European hit films like Love Is All You Need by the Danish Oscar winner Susanne Bier, and I’m So Excited! by Pedro Almodóvar, also finalists in this category, as well as the Italian film Benvenuto Presidente! by Riccardo Milani.

The nomination of The Priest’s Children for the best European comedy is one of the greatest recent international success stories of Croatian filmmaking. Vinko Brešan commented on the nomination: “Every film, including The Priest’s Children, aspires to artistic verification. The European Film Academy is the foremost European institution that fosters film as a work of art. EFA’s nomination is a clear testimony that the artistic values of Croatian film belong to the very top. Personally, I am thrilled to see how far The Priest’s Children have travelled: from acknowledgment by the Croatian audience to acknowledgment by the European film professionals.”

With WIDE Management heading its international sales, The Priest’s Children will be distributed in cinemas across Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea, USA and Iceland, scheduled for 2014, which makes this film one of the most successful Croatian cultural export products. The film’s producer Ivan Maloča said: “I am extremely pleased to see 'The Priest’s Children' nominated in the best European comedy category, because this is the category most global distributers focus on. As the film is distributed in several countries across the world, this nomination will make 'The Priest’s Children' available to so many more viewers, who can in that way get acquainted with Croatian culture.”


Marija Škaričić and Nikša Butijer in The Priest’s Children

So far the European Film Award nominations went to the Croatian films Fragments: Chronicle of a Vanishing (1991) by Zrinko Ogresta and A Wonderful Night in Split (2003) by Arsen Ostojić in the European Discovery category. Zrinka Cvitešić earned a best actress nomination for the Croatian minority co-production On the Path (2010).

The 26th European Film Award ceremony takes place on 7 December in Berlin. The nominations in the best European film category include the Italian movie The Best Offer by Giuseppe Tornatore, the French-Belgian-Spanish piece Blue Is the Warmest Color by Abdellatif Kechiche, the Spanish-French-Belgian co-production Snow White by Pablo Berger, the Italian film La grande bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino, the German film Oh Boy by Jan Ole Gerster, and the Belgian-Dutch co-production The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen. The ceremony will be attended by all the important European film directors, producers and film stars, and it will be broadcasted live in 80 countries across the globe. The entire list of nominations can be found on this link.