EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY WARMS TO COLD WAR

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War earned top honours at the 31^st European Film Awards (EFA), held on December 15 in Seville, Spain. The Polish filmmaker’s tragic love story, loosely based on the turbulent and rebellious life led by his parents, took home five of the top categories before a live audience of 1,600 guests and industry figures at the historic Teatro de la Maestranza.

In addition to the Best European Film award, the Polish/French/U.K. co-production secured Best Director and Best Screenwriter trophies for Pawlikowski (pictured, above), returning to the winner’s podium for the first time since 2014, when his film Ida dominated the ceremony. “I’d like to thank my parents for living a disastrous and ultimately beautiful life,” said the 61 year-old filmmaker, who also acknowledged the unified front represented by those present. “Today we celebrate our differences, we unite in our diversity. Europe is not one voice, but a choir of different voices.”

Slated as Poland’s entry in the Best Foreign Film Oscar category, the monochromatic drama also won Best Actress for Joanna Kulig, and Best Editing for Jarosław Kamiński. The EFAs add to a growing list of accolades for Cold War that include the Cannes Film Festival Best Director award and the Best Foreign Film honour from America’s National Board of Review. 

The film was denied an EFA clean sweep when leading man Tomasz Kot lost to Marcello Fonte for his understated performance in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman. which also found favour in the Costume and Hair & Make-Up categories. Martin Otterbeck won Best Cinematographer for the Norwegian drama Utøya: July 22, a harrowing survival tale based upon the mass shooting at the political summer camp in 2011.

Other winners included Lukas Dhont’s Girl for European Discovery; Jane Magnusson’s Bergman- A Year in a Life for Best Documentary; Another Day Of Life from directors Damian Nenow and Raúl De La Fuente for Best Animated Feature; Andrey Ponkratov for his production design on Summer (Leto); sound designers André Bendocchi-Alves and Martin Steyer 
for the German film The Captain; and, visual effects veteran Peter Hjorth for his work on Ali Abbasi’s Border.

Honorary EFAs were bestowed upon beloved Spanish actress Carmen Maura, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Oscar-winning Greek auteur Costa-Gavras (Z, 1969; Missing, 1982), who accepted the EFA Honorary Award. The audience-voted People’s Choice EFA went to Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age romance Call Me By Your Name.

The shadow cast by the United Kingdom’s ‘Brexit’ movement was addressed by two of the most respected and outspoken statesmen of Britain’s film community. Upon receiving the Best European Comedy award for The Death of Stalin, writer/director Armando Iannuci earned big laughs when he stated, “This is a European film. I’m Scottish/Italian, shot mostly in England, were financed by the French, did a lot of our post-production in Belgium. It just shows what a good idea it is if different countries in Europe come together to work with the British. Let’s call it a European community, a European union. I’m going to take the idea back to the United Kingdom this evening.”

Past Best Actor EFA winner Ralph Fiennes (Sunshine, 1999), present to accept the honorary European Achievement in World Cinema award, was harsher in his condemnation of his homeland’s current political climate. “Can I be English and European? Emphatically yes. There is a crisis in Europe and our feeling of family, of connection and of shared history, shared wounds - this feeling is threatened by a discourse of division. In England now, there is only the noise of division.”

In line with the sense of celebration central to the kudocast, Fiennes ended on a hopeful note. “But the expression in a film can be a window for us to see another person, another human experience,” he said. “We can celebrate our differences of custom and common humanity at the same time.”