Les Arcs: Schoenaerts crowned Best Actor, Cineuropa Award for Extraterrestrial

by Fabien Lemercier

19/12/2011 - Topped by Angelina Nikonova’s Russian film Twilight Portrait, the competition at the 3rd Les Arcs European Film Festival also brought success for the actors in films by Belgian directors, as they hogged the acting gongs awarded by the jury presided by Italian director Michele Placido. The impressive Matthias Schoenaerts (who is currently wrapping shooting on Jacques Audiard’s next film – see news) won Best Actor for his role in Michaël R. Roskam’s gripping Bullhead [trailer, film focus] (to be released in France on February 22, 2012 by Ad Vitam), while newcomer Emma Levie was crowned Best Actress for her performance in Christophe Van Rompaey’s Dutch/Belgian co-production Lena [trailer] (see review).

The Jury Prize was awarded to Martin Sulik’s Slovakian/Czech feature Gypsy (see review), Best Cinematography to German director Christoph Hochhaülser’s One Minute of Darkness (Three Lives) (see review) and Best Score to Jens Lien’s Sons of Norway [trailer] (see review).

The Cineuropa Award went to Nacho Vigalondo’s highly playful Spanish film Extraterrestrial [trailer, film focus] (see review). Finally, the Audience Award went to Ian Fitzgibbon’s German/Irish co-production Death of a Superhero [trailer] (see review), which also won the Prize of the Young Jury (who gave a Special Mention to Terraferma [trailer, film focus] by Italy’s Emmanuele Crialese).

Headed by Jérémy Zelnik, the festival’s professional events also lived up to their promise, in particular the new Work In Progress (see news). Gaïa Bidat, manager of the Co-production Village (see news), said: "This year, the quality of projects was clearly on the rise with a good mix of budget levels (from €613,000 to €4m), established directors, as well as debut features. Negotiations have already got well underway for several projects. This edition was also marked by a strong presence from international sellers (including Gaumont, Memento, Elle Driver, Les Films du Losange, Le Pacte and Wild Bunch).

(Translated from French)