The Return by director Andrei Zvyagintsev (l) is in contention

The country's National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was attacked over its selection criteria.

There was anger among younger critics at the omission of Pyotr Buslov's hit teenage crime adventure, Bumer.

Included on the shortlist is Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Return - chosen as Russia's foreign-language Oscar pick.

The father-and-son drama, which is screening at the US Sundance independent movie festival this week, won the prestigious Golden Lion award at Venice in 2003.

Other nominations include Aleksei Uchitel's video-format feature The Stroll, which opened last year's Moscow International Film Festival.

Angry exchanges

There are also mentions for Vitali Melnikov's Czarist costume drama Poor, Poor Pavel; Vadim Abdrashitov's industrial melodrama Magnetic Storms; and road movie Koktebel, directed by Boris Khlebnikov and Aleksei Popogrebsky.

The omission of Bumer, one of Russia's biggest hits of last year, led to angry exchanges between young critics and the overwhelmingly elderly Academy members.

In further criticism, academy members were asked why they had included TV films in feature film categories. Critics also questioned the wisdom of a single category for movies shot on different formats, such as video or 35mm.

Academy member Kirill Razlogov defended the nominations, saying there was "nothing surprising" about the process.

The second annual Golden Eagle awards ceremony takes place in Moscow on 31 January.