26th European Film Awards Winners

A nice to watch ceremony full of the very peculiar German humor that allowed us to learn the 2013 winners of this prestigious regional award that for the first time in several years coincide with my opinion (lol) as definitively agree that La Grande Bellezza is a movie that deserves great honors.

The homages to Pedro Almodovar and Catherine Deneuve were so different from each other but both were entertaining, especially watching the film clips collage that bring great memories from the long ago, not long ago and recent past. While Almodovar got the visit of most of his actors (no Penelope, Victoria, Carmen or Antonio) Deneuve got the most touching words from Wes Wenders, so touching that even I became emotional and can't help but to share that both homages were the highlight of the awards show for me.

Winners are in *BLUE. To read info for each movie go to Official site.

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11/9
A few minutes ago at the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy announced the nominations for this year. Most were expected and for me this year there is no big surprises among the nominees, unless you consider movies that I did not enjoyed and got nominations in categories that truly are not deserved, sigh.

Excellent The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen leads with five (5) nominations followed by awesome, opulent and truly decadent La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino with four nods (including one for great Toni Servillo, whom already won in my awards).

Please remember that the award calendar runs from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 and is the reason why the nominations have films from last year. Also, the films must have a director who was born in Europe or has a European passport and Europe has a geographical definition. The more than 2,900 EFA Members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on 7 December in Berlin.

There are a couple of new things this year, first EFA already announced the winners in Cinematography, Editing, Design, Costumes and Music & Sound, so listed here are the winners. Second, there is a new category: European Comedy to honor a genre that I do not particularly enjoy but can't deny that have seen half the nominated movies and well, yes, I enjoyed them!

European Film
The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy
Blancanieves, Pablo Berger, Spain and France
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
*La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy and France
Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color), Adellatif Kechiche, France

European Comedy
Los Amantes Pasajeros (I'm So Excited!), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Benvenuto Presidente! (Welcome Mr. President!), Riccardo Milani, Italy
*Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need), Susanne Bier, Denmark
Svecenikova Djeca (The Priest's Children), Vinko Brešan, Croatia and Serbia

European Director
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves
Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
Abdellatif Kechiche for La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color),
François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer

European Actress
Kiera Knightley in Anna Karenina
*Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt
Naomi Watts in Lo Imposible (The Impossible)
Luminita Gheorghiu in Pozitia Copilului (Child's Pose)

European Actor
Jude Law in Anna Karenina
Johan Heldenbergh in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Fabrice Luchini in Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Toni Servillo in La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty)
Tom Schilling in Oh Boy!

European Screenwriter
Tom Stoppard for Anna Karenina
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer
Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
*François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello for La Garnde Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI
Äta sova dö (Eat Sleep Die), Gabriela Pichler, Sweden
Call Girl, Mikael Marcimain, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Finland
Miele (Honey), valeria Golino, Italy and France
*Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Plaga (The Plague), Neus Ballús, Spain

European Animated Feature Film
*The Congress, Ari Folman, Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France and Belgium
Jasmine, Alain Ughetto, France
Pinocchio, Enzo d'AIò, Italy, Luxembourg, France and Belgium

European Documentary
*The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Norway and UK
L'Escale (Stop-Over), Kaveh Bakhtiari, Switzerland and France
L'Image Manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh, France and Cambodia

European Short Film
Cut, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Germany, 12' (Vila do Conde nominee)
*Dood Van Een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet, Belgium and France, 20' (Valladolid nominee)
Houses with Small Windows, Bülent Öztürk, Belgium, 15' (Venice nominee)
La Lampe au Beurre de Yak (Butter Lamp), Hu Wei, France and China, 15' (Drama nominee)
Letter, Sergei Loznitsa, Russia, 20' (documentary) (Krakow nominee)
Misterio (Mystery), Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 12' (Berlin nominee)
Morning, Cathy Brady, UK and Ireland, 21' (Cork nominee)
As Ondas (The Waves), Miguel Fonseca, Portugal, 22' (Ghent nominee)
Orbit Ever After, Jamie Stone, UK, 20' (Bristol nominee)
Skok (Jump), Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva, Bulgaria, 30' (Clermont-Ferrand nominee)
Sonntag 3 (Sunday 3), Jochen Kuhn, Germany, 14' (Tampere nominee)
A Story for the Modlins, Sergio Oksman, Spain, 26' (documentary) (Sarajevo nominee)
Though I Know The River Is Dry, Omar Robert Hamilton, Egypt, Palestine and UK, 20' (Rotterdam nominee)
Yaderni Wydhody (Nuclear Waste), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine, 25' (Grimstad nominee)
Zima, Christina Picchi, Russia, 12' (documentary) (Locarno nominee)

Winners already announced
Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award: Asaf Sudry for Lemale et Ha'Halal (Fill The Void), Israel
European Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Italy and France
European Production Designer: Sarah Greenwood for Anna Karenina, UK
European Composer: Ennio Morricone for The Best Offer, Italy
European Costume Designer: Paco Delgado for Blancanieves, Spain and France
European Sound Designer: Matz Müller and Erik Mischijew for Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith), Austria, Germany and France

As we already know Catherine Deneuve will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding body of work and Pedro Almodóvar gets the honorary award European Achievement in World Cinema for his outstanding body of work. Both will be honorary guests at the awards ceremony on December 7th in Berlin.

To read about each of the nominated films go here.