BBC Four World Cinema Award noms announced

BBC Four has announced the nominations for its World Cinema Awards 2008 sponsored by Pioneer.

Films nominated this year include the Academy Award-winning The Lives Of Others, Michael Gondry's romantic fantasy The Science Of Sleep and Climates, which stars and is directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and his wife Ebru Ceylan.

The other two films up for the award are Guillermo Del Toro's Academy Award-winner Pan's Labyrinth and Syndromes And A Century, which is currently banned in Thailand because director Apichatpong Weerasethakul refuses to edit any scenes.

The list was drawn from a selection of 186 foreign language films released in the UK between November 1, 2006 and October 31, 2007, as chosen by over 200 film critics.

Last year's winner was the Romanian film The Death Of Mr Lazarescu.

The ceremony, hosted by Jonathan Ross, takes place at London's BFI South Bank on January 30, 2008.

Speaking about this year's nominations, Ross said: "On display here is exciting new work by directors who are prepared to push the possibilities of film to the limit.

"In the cases of The Lives Of Others and Syndromes And A Century are directors Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who are prepared to push my powers of pronunciation to the limit as well."