Amour and Shame lead the European Film Awards race

The final nominations of the upcoming European Film Awards - whose final ceremony will take place at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, on December 1 - have been announced today.

Leading the way is the French-language drama Amour, with a total of six nominations (best film, director, actor, actress, screenwriter and cinematographer).

Directed by Austrian auteur Michael Haneke (Funny Games, The Piano Teacher), the film - which centers around an old couple in their twilight years - has already won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and has been selected as the Austrian entry for the upcoming 85th edition of the Academy Awards.

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Following closely behind is the critically acclaimed sex addict drama Shame - directed by Turner Prize-winning video artist Steve McQueen and starring prolific Irish actor Michael Fassbender.

The film - which marks the second collaboration between McQueen and Fassbender following 2008's Hunger - has been slotted in for the key accolades of best film, director, actor and cinematographer, while also scoring a nomination for its editor, Joe Walker.

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Third in line is Danish film The Hunt - with four crucial nominations to its name (film, director, actor and editor). The Thomas Vinterberg-directed film places kindergarten teacher Lucas (played by former James Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen) through an emotional wringer, after an 'innocent little lie' threatens to undermine his reputation.

Two of the films in the selection have tied with three nominations each. The high-concept Italian drama Caesar Must Die - which casts real prisoners in a film about inmates being encouraged to perform a production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - has bagged film, director and editor nominations, while heart-warming French hit The Intouchables scores nominations for best film, actor and screenwriter.

The Brits enjoy the honour of having two titles in the running for a European Film Awards accolade, as the star-studded espionage thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is up for a best actor award for star Gary Oldman, as well as a nod for its Danish cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema.

The German entry - Christian Petzold's understated wartime character study Barbara - also scored two nominations (best film and actress), and it's joined by celebrated Russian historical drama Faust.

German film Barbara has bagged two nominations.

Based on the perennial devil-pact poem by Goethe, Faust, directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, has been nominated for two technical accolades (cinematographer and production design), though it had already scored the top prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2011.

For a complete list of nominees, log on to the European Film Awards website.