Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite was the big winner at the European Film Awards on Saturday (December 7), winning eight prizes include best film, best director, best actress for Olivia Colman and best comedy.
The film also won four previously announced technical awards for best cinematography, costume design, editing and hair and make-up.
Neither Lanthimos nor Colman attended the ceremony in Berlin, with Colman sending a video message.
Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize for his role in Pedro Almoodvar’s Pain & Glory.
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ For Sama won the best documentary prize. They accepted the award via video link from Los Angeles where the UK film about the experiences of al-Kateab and her baby daughter in war-devastated Syria, is gaining momentum as a best documentary contender for the 2020 Oscars.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The entertaining three-hour ceremony, directed for the first time German filmmaker Dietrich Brüggemann and held at Berlin’s Haus der Festspiele, was marked by an emotional tribute to “the one and only” Nik Powell, the former chairman of the European Film Academy who died unexpectedly last month. EFA director Marion Döring and president Wim Wenders paid tribute to Powell and welcomed his daughter Amy who was in town for the ceremony.
Additionally, new EFA chairman producer Mike Downey, who has taken over from filmmaker Agnieszka Holland following the end of her six-year term, welcomed the freed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov on to the stage to a standing ovation.
With Sentsov at his side, Downey formally launched the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk initiative.
He added that, as part of his mandate as EFA chairman, he would ¨like to make all aspects of sustainability - not only at EFA itself but [also] the European film industry - a priority, and last but not least, to extend the idea of gender balance, not just concentrating on the director of a film, but on supporting and encouragining gender balance across the board in every department of the film’s credits.¨
Juliette Binoche received the European Achievement in World Cinema award and Werner Herzog was presented with the lifetime achievement award.
Students hot for Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
On the eve of the European Film Awards, the fourth edition of the European University Film Award (EUFA) was won by French director Céline Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. The EUFA became an official award category of the European Film Awards for the first time this year after being launched by EFA and Filmfest Hamburg in 2016.
Students from 24 universities in 24 European countries had viewed and discussed nominated films before one representative from each university came to Hamburg last week for three days of deliberations to decide on the final winner.
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire screened at Berlin’s Cinema Paris on Friday night as part of the European Union’s European Cinema Night initiative held in 54 cities across the EU between December 2-6.
2020 in Reykjavik
Next year’s awards ceremony will take place in Reykjavik in Iceland. It will be the last held under the management of the EFA director Marion Döring who has held the position since 1996 and been part of the EFA organisation since the awards’ inception in 1988.
Complete list EFA 2019 winners:
EUROPEAN FILM
THE FAVOURITE by Yorgos Lanthimos
EUROPEAN COMEDY
THE FAVOURITE by Yorgos Lanthimos
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY - Prix FIPRESCI
Lady Ly for LES MISÉRABLES
EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
FOR SAMA by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts
EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Salvador Simo Busomfor BUNUEL IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE TURTLES
EUROPEAN SHORT FILM
Bogdan Muresanu for THE CHRISTMAS GIFT
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Yorgos Lanthimos for THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Olivia Colman in THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN ACTOR
Antonio Banderas in PAIN AND GLORY
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
Céline Sciammafor PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Robbie Ryan for THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2019
Yorgos Mavropsaridisfor THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGN
Antxon Gómez for PAIN AND GLORY
EUROPEAN COSTUME DESIGN
Sandy Powellfor THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN HAIR & MAKE-UP
Nadia Stacey for THE FAVOURITE
EUROPEAN ORIGINAL SCORE
John Gürtler for SYSTEM CRASHER
EUROPEAN SOUND
Eduardo Esquide, Nacho Royo-Villanova and Laurent Chassaigne for A TWELVE-YEAR NIGHT
EUROPEAN VISUAL EFFECTS
Martin Ziebell, Sebastian Kaltmeyer, Néha Hirve, Jesper Brodersen, and Torgeir Busch for ABOUT ENDLESSNESS
EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN FICTION SERIES
Achim von Borries, Henk Handloegten and Tom Tykwer for Babylon Berlin
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Werner Herzog
EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA
Juliette Binoche
EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD – Prix EURIMAGES
Ankica Jurić Tilić
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD for Best European Film
COLD WAR
YOUNG AUDIENCE AWARD
Johann Timmers for FIGHT GIRL
EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY FILM AWARD (EUFA)
Céline Sciamma for PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
No comments yet