An unhappy week for German film closed on a more conciliatory note on Friday night with nominations for the German Film Prize evenly spread.

Heading the list was Andreas Kleinert's Wege In Die Nacht, Oskar Roehler's Die Unberuehrbare and Tomy Wigand's Fussball Ist Unser Leben with three nominations each. They were closely followed by Thorsten Schmidt's Schnee In Der Neujahrsnacht, Rolf Schuebel's Ein Lied Von Liebe Und Tod - Gloomy Sunday, Pepe Danquart's Heimspiel and Wim Wenders' The Million Dollar Hotel with two nods each.

Wenders achieved a unique personal triumph with Buena Vista Social Club also nominated in the best documentary category. Hotel was also the only film to win nominations in both the best picture and best director categories. The hometown support for Wenders may go some way to soothing Wenders' - and Germany's - pride, which had been dented by Buena Vista failing to win an Oscar last Sunday. The Oscar defeat has provoked a rash of articles in the German and US press suggesting that the Academy rules had been bent by documentary winner One Day In September.

The week got worse when federal culture minister Michael Naumann slammed Germany's production community for being risk averse and overly dependent on subsidies. There was further gloom on Thursday when Naumann announced a cut of $104,500 (DM215,000) in federal support for the German Film Export Union.

The Munich-based promotion agency said that the cutback could result in the cancellation of one its annual festivals of German cinema in Madrid, Paris, London or Rome this year.

The German film prizes will be announced on June 16 at a ceremony at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.

Nomination list in full:

Best feature:
Absolute Giganten
Ein Lied Von Liebe Und Tod - Gloomy Sunday
The Million Dollar Hotel
Sonnenallee
Die Unberuehrbare
Wege In Die Nacht

Best documentary:
Buena Vista Social Club
Heimspiel

Best actress:
Hannelore Elsner for Die Unberuehrbare
Cornelia Schmaus for Wege In Die Nacht
Tamara Simunovic for Schnee In Der Neujahrsnacht

Best actor:
Joachim Krol for Ein Lied Von Liebe Und Tod - Gloomy Sunday
Uwe Ochsenknecht for Fussball Ist Unser Leben
Jürgen Tarrach for Schnee In Der Neujahrsnacht and Drei Chinesen Mit Dem Kontrabass

Best supporting actress:
Henriette Heinze for Wege In Die Nacht
Marita Marschall for Fussball Ist Unser Leben
Nadja Uhl for Die Stille Nach Dem Schuss

Best supporting actor:
Vadim Glowna for Die Unberuehrbare
Edgar Selge for Drei Chinesen Mit Dem Kontrabass
Oscar Ortega Sanchez for Fussball Ist Unser Leben

Best direction:
Pepe Danquart for Heimspiel
Veit Helmer for Tuvalu
Wim Wenders for The Million Dollar Hotel