13/12/2014 - Paweł Pawlikowski’s film continues its success story by winning five trophies at the European Film Awards, including Best Director and Best Film

RIGA – The 27th edition of the European Film Awards took place on Saturday in the European Capital of Culture, and the evening turned out to be assuredly Polish, thanks to the five awards won by Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile], a co-production with Denmark. The movie won Best Film, Best Director for Paweł Pawlikowski, who also took home the Best Screenwriter Award (for a script co-written with Rebecca Lenkiewicz), Best Cinematographer for Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski, and lastly, the People’s Choice Award, an honour that still seems remarkable even at a time when The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] and Blancanieves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pablo Berger
film profile] have contributed a great deal to piquing audiences’ interest, proving once and for all that today’s viewers are certainly not averse to black and white.

The evening also saw the handing out of two honorary awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award given to French director Agnès Varda and the European Achievement in World Cinema Award, which went to British filmmaker Steve McQueen, who took the opportunity to acknowledge the influence that Jean Vigo has had on his career.

The 3,000-odd members of the Academy, chaired by Wim Wenders, voted from all across Europe, to settle on the following recipients:

BEST EUROPEAN FILM
Ida

BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
film profile] by Pierfrancesco Diliberto 

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Pawel Pawlikowski for Ida

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
film profile]

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR
Timothy Spall in Mr Turner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mike Leigh
film profile]

BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
Pawel Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz for Ida 

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY AWARD – FIPRESCI PRIZE
The Tribe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy

BEST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
Master of the Universe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marc Bauder

BEST EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE
The Art of Happiness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alessandro Rak
film profile] by Alessandro Rak

BEST EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski for Ida

BEST EUROPEAN EDITOR
Justine Wright for Locke

BEST EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Claus-Rudolf Amler for The Dark Valley [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

BEST EUROPEAN COSTUME DESIGNER
Natascha Curtius-Noss for The Dark Valley

BEST EUROPEAN COMPOSER
Mica Levi for Under The Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonathan Glazer
film profile]

BEST EUROPEAN SOUND DESIGNER
Joakim Sundström for Starred Up [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Mackenzie
film profile]

As usual, the 2015 edition of the EFAs will be held in Berlin, while we wait for 2016, when the Academy will move the event to the Polish city of Wroclaw, that year’s Capital of Culture.

The live coverage from the EFA ceremony is available on Cineuropa’s Facebook page.

(Translated from French)