MOVIES - April 4, 1989

Ingmar Bergman has been chosen by European film makers to head their effort to make Europe’s Felix Award the overseas counterpart of Hollywood’s Oscar. Members of the European Cinema Society said in Berlin that they hope to infuse the award with worldwide familiarity and prestige. The first awards ceremonies were held last fall in West Berlin, where the Felix for best film went to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s comedy, “Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios” (“Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”). (That film had been nominated this year for an Oscar in the best foreign film category, but lost out to Denmark’s “Pelle the Conqueror.”) Founding members of the European Cinema Society include Richard Attenborough, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Isabelle Huppert, Louis Malle, Max von Sydow, Eric Rohmer and Liv Ullmann.