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LUX PRIZE 2014

The European Parliament crowns Ida

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- Pawel Pawlikowski's award-winning film has beaten Céline Sciamma's Girlhood and Rok Biček's Class Enemy at the ceremony held in Strasbourg

The European Parliament crowns Ida
The LUX Prize ceremony, today in Strasbourg (© Sara Petti)

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile
]
, fresh from its big success at Saturday’s European Film Awards, where it won no fewer than five of the most important awards (read the news), now has another statuette to add to its trophy case. The Polish film has been awarded the European Parliament's LUX Prize 2014, thus beating the other two finalists, Céline Sciamma's Girlhood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Sciamma
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile
]
and Rok Biček's Class Enemy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rok Biček
interview: Rok Bicek
interview: Rok Bicek
film profile
]
.

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The prize, decided on the basis of a vote by the Members of the European Parliament, is intended to celebrate the diversity and the social relevance of cinema in Europe. After the selection of three finalists, Ida has finally been picked out as the best example of this. Pawlikowski's journey through the life of a young Polish orphan raised as a nun, who then comes of age by discovering her real identity, presented in splendid and melancholic black-and-white photography, has been widely seen as a way to show the past of the continent coming to terms with its present, and maybe its future.

“Although it was every financier's nightmare, Ida has succeeded in crossing all European borders, reaching audiences from France to Hungary, from the United Kingdom to Malta – which may be the proof that art still has a role to play in cinema today, and that the more personal and specific the film, the less rhetorical and calculating it is – and the more universal its reach,” said Pawlikowski as he received the prize. The LUX Prize was handed out by the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, at noon today in the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg, demonstrating the Parliament's commitment to supporting the film industry and its creative efforts. “Today's finalists have a very specific context. And they give us a hint of what is happening around us, giving us Europeans the feeling that we are more united,” remarked Schulz.

The LUX Film Days, part of the LUX Prize, have assured the screenings of the three finalist films all around the continent, and later on, the LUX Prize Public Mention will be awarded, following the audience's vote.

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