A rich beautiful thing of all the talents, a cross between

A fantasy of the bedroom and a saint …

You were just a back street girl

Hustling and fighting

Scratching and biting

High flying, adored, did you believe in your wildest moments

All this would be yours, that you'd become the lady of them all?

-The CHE, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musical EVITA

Founded in 1989, the European Film Academy (EFA) currently unites 1,800 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture. Throughout the year, the EFA initiates and participates in a series of activities dealing with film politics as well as economic, artistic, and training aspects. The program includes conferences, seminars and workshops, and a common goal is to build a bridge between creativity and the industry. These activities culminate in the annual presentation of the European Film Awards. Presided by German Director Wim Wenders (Paris Texas, Wings of Desire) since 1996, Forty-two movies from 26 nations will compete for the next batch of awards bestowed by the European Film Academy. See Complete List of nominees and Categories. The European Film Awards are so determined to get ahead of the Oscars and, therefore perhaps to influence them, that they jump ahead of the whole annual derby. Winners will be announced this year on Dec. 1 in Spain. That's just days before the National Board of Review announces its list of honorees in New York City, thus officially kicking off the Yankee kudos race. Because of that timing, the eligibility period of the European Film Award doesn't follow a typical calendar year like the Oscars. Thus its contenders usually straddle two derbies. Ditto this year. For example, the current list includes stragglers from the last Oscar race -- 'The Last King of Scotland,' 'The Queen,' 'Black Book' and 'Perfume' -- trotting alongside newcomers like 'La Vie en Rose,' 'Once' and … 'Persepolis.'

Thus Marjane Satrapi’s animated film on a childhood growing up in Revolutionary Iran and then in exile is in competition once again after making headlines for its critically acclaimed Cannes Jury Prize Film that received a rare 20 minutes Standing Ovation during its first screening at Cannes. It may also represent France in several categories including best animation in the upcoming 80^th annual Oscars ceremony that will take place in 2008. Given the deep subject treatment in Persepolis, it certainly has great chances of beating other would be contenders as Pixar's Ratatouille, 20th Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie or DreamWorks' Bee Movie which despite their great technological breakthroughs and humor may not live up to a masterpiece like Persepolis that has already become a Classic in France and appears as emblematic of an entire new generation of European animation filmmakers wishing to make equally artistic and political statements in the lines of their peers in French New Wave Cinema, Italian Neo Realism or German Expressionist Cinema all of which find strong echoes in Marjane Satrapi’s excellent Persepolis. The Winners of the 20th European Film Awards 2007 will be announced during the Awards Ceremony on December 1 in Berlin.

Satrapi's Persepolis wins 'Prix du Jury' at Cannes by Darius KADIVAR