Alois Nebel wins at the European Film Awards

The black-and-white Czech thriller Alois Nebel (Tomáš Luňák, dir.) tells the story of a shameful incident from WWII that haunts those involved, up to 1989 and the fall of the communist regime [Our film review].

The film was adapted from a Czech graphic novel by Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromir 99. Luňák cites that the legendary Czech animator and director Karel Zeman was one of the main inspirations in the visual aspect of making the film.

Alois Nebel has also won the feature film award at the 2012 Anim'est festival, Bucharest.

 Tomáš Luňák, clearly emotional, delivered a brief "Thank you" acceptance speech upon receiving the award.

The two other nominees were the Spanish, Goya-awarded Wrinkles  (Arrugas la pelicula, dir. Ignacio Ferreras, Petro Vedre Films)[review], and the UK/USA  stop-motion film, Pirates! Band of Misfits (Peter Lord, dir., Aardman-Sony Animation).

The nominated films were voted on by the 2,700 EFA Members and were presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony in Malta on Saturday, 1 December. The 2011 EFA award for animated feature was given to the Cuban jazz love story, Chico & Rita (dir. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Spain).

EFA does not have a separate award for short animated films; Villa Antropoff was nominated in the short film category.