Barbara, a slow-burning drama set in communist East Germany from director Christian Petzold, is the front runner for this year’s Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscar, with eight nominations, including best film, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Barbara premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last month, where it won Petzold the Silver Bear for best director. The film, which The Match Factory is selling worldwide, stars Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld.

Going up against Barbara for the best film prize at this year’s Lolas is Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare-themed conspiracy thriller Anonymous, which notched up seven nominations, many in technical categories and Andreas Dresen’s Stopped on Track, a dark, if comic, look at a man dying of cancer, which also got seven Lola noms.

The apocalyptic sci-fi film Hell from first-time director Tim Fehlbaum, which Emmerich executive produced; David Wnendt’s skinhead drama Combat Girls and Christian Zübert’s Three Quarter Moon round out the best film nominees.

Ukrainian-born Alina Levshin picked up her first-ever Lola nomination in the best actress category for her scarily realistic portrayal of a neo-Nazi in Combat Girls. She will be going up against Steffi Kühnert in Stopped on Track and Sandra Hüller, nominated for her starring role in Jan Schomburg’s drama Above Us Only Sky.

The best actors race includes Milan Peschel for Stopped on Track, Zehrfeld for Barbara and Peter Schneider for Hans Weingartner’s Hut in the Woods. Weingartner picked up a best director nomination for the psychological drama and will go up against Petzold and Dresen in the category.

The 2012 Lola Awards will be announced at a gala ceremony in Berlin April 27.