Three documentaries have been shortlisted for the European Film Academy Prix Arte award.

Janus Metz’s Armadillo, Joonas Berghall and Mika Jotakainen’s Steam Of Life and Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia For The Light have been nominated for the 2010 European Film Academy Prix Arte award for best documentary.  

Controversial Danish documentary Armadillo picked up the Grand Prix in this year’s Cannes Critics Week. The film centres around Danish soldiers in Afghanistan and sparked a government inquiry in Denmark.

Steam of Life, about the conversations that take place in the saunas of Finland, is the first documentary to be selected as Finland’s foreign Oscar submission.

French-German-Chilean co-production Nostalgia For The Light world premiered in Cannes, before going on to screen in Toronto. It focuses on the different groups of people who inhabit Chile’s Atacama Desert.

The three nominated films were chosen by EFA board member Despina Mouzaki (Greece), EFA Members Pierre-Henri Deleau (France) and Francine Brücher (Switzerland), along with Claas Danielsen from the Leipzig Documentary Festival, IDFA director Ally Derks and Belgium producer Jacques Laurent.

For the first time, the winning documentary will be chosen by the EFA’s 2300 members, rather than the jury.  

The winner of the Prix Arte will be announced at the 23rd European Film Awards take place on December 4 in Tallinn, Estonia.