17/02/2007

While everything is being prepared for tonight’s official awards ceremony, which will take place at the Berlinale Palast, several other collateral prizes have already been announced. Among them there is the Label Europa Cinemas award, to Antonio Banderas's second feature as a director, Summer Rain [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), screened in the festival’s Panorama sidebar section.

"Thank you very much, this will help my film get more viewers", said the actor-turned-director, visibly surprised. Since Summer Rain was not shown in a competitive section, Banderas emphasised he wasn't expecting any awards yet “deep inside we are always glad to receive a prize, even if we say we were not here to compete".

Launched for the first time in 2003 at the Cannes Film Festival, Label Europa Cinema was created to help European films increase their distribution and raise their audience and media profiles. The Label is awarded to a European production selected in the Director's Fortnight section in Cannes, Venice Days in Venice and in the Panorama section of the Berlinale.

Previous winners include Spanish director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (see interview) and French filmmaker Xavier Beauvois.