2023 European Film Awards Winners – The Hollywood Reporter

Justine Triet’s French courtroom drama, Anatomy of a Fall, has won best film at the 2023 European Film Awards, held on Thursday evening. Today, December 9 in Berlin.

Sandra Hüller, a two-time nominee in the best picture category, won for her indoor garden Anatomy of a Fall a writer who may have killed her husband.

In accepting his award, Hüller, speaking of the various conflicts raging in and around Europe at the moment, called for a moment of silence from the audience to “calm, strong, clear, think about peace.”

Justine Triet took home the best honor for Anatomy and shared the best award with Arthur Harari for their co-authored murder mystery. A couple in real life, Triet and Harari said that the writing of the script, a severe separation of a marriage in an accident, “tested our relationship but thankfully we survived.”

Anatomy of a Fall it is not an official request of France for the Oscar race in 2024 but the film, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, is considered a prize competition in the main categories.

Danish star Mads Mikkelsen took home the best honor for his lead performance in Nikolaj Arcel’s Western. The Promised Land.

once Anatomy of a Fallother best films nominated include Jonathan Glazer’s horrifying Holocaust novel The Situation ZoneAki Kaurismäki dark, droll Finnish love story Fallen LeavesMatteo Garrone’s Io Capitano from Italy, and Agnieszka Holland’s Polish drama Green border.

The evening started with a new twist in the award for the best writing to go Sauna Brothers, Estonia officially entered Oscar in the best international category. Instead of the usual congratulations from the stage, director Anna Hints led her staff and crew in a speech of appreciation.

Molly Manning Walker won the European Discovery Award, for best first film, for her dream How to Have Sexwhich debuted in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard category this year.

Pablo Berger’s dog-and-robot buddy movie Dream Robot take the EFA for the best picture. Accepting his award, Berger sang “The film is not a genre!”

The European Young Audience Award, voted by the young members of the EFA’s European Film Club, went to the British daughter-in-law Charlotte Regan. Tinwhich premiered at Sundance.

Austrian “pseudo-Marxist” art collective Total Refusal wins EFA for best film for Hard Workwhich follows non-player characters (NPCs) from the 2018 Western game Redemption Dead Dead 2framing their routines as nothing more than useless as a metaphor for the lives of workers under capitalism.

Politics cannot be avoided in this year’s awards. Before the joint announcement, Agnieszka Holland, President of the European Film Academy, addressed the audience, referring to the challenging political situation for the EFA, and “the war in Ukraine is still raging, the conflict in between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the terrible events of Oct. 7,” referring to Hamas attacks on Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.

“The past weeks have been angry, disappointed and shocked,” added the Chairman of the European Film Academy Chair Mike Downey, saying that the Academy has “representatives on all sides” of these disputes. “We have Russians, we have Ukrainians, we have Israelis we have Palestinians.”

According to the current events, Holland said, it was not easy “to feel proud or to feel hope” and he asked, “Who dares to speak? Who dares to defend our Jewish friends in Europe? Who dares to show solidarity with the millions of suffering Palestinians? Do we act rather than talk?”

The CEO of the European Film Academy, Matthijs Wouter Knol, called the school “an organization that creates an organization” in Europe that tries to create an opportunity for all members of the EFA, on any side of the political divide or the country they come from, “to talk, listen and understand each other.”

EFA’s Excellence Awards, the artistic arm of the European Film Awards, were announced ahead of the festival on Saturday. Arcel’s 18th-century Danish Western The Promised Land won best picture awards for. The true story of JA Bayona Snow Society winning best visual effects for Félix Bergés and Laura Pedrobest and best hair and makeup for Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé. The Situation Zone won the best design for Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers, and Laurent Sénéchal took the best prize for his work on it. Anatomy of a Fall. Emita Frigato won the EFA for best production for Rohwacher’s Italian drama La Chimeraand Markus Binder received top score for his soundtrack to Jessica Hausner’s health drama. Club Zero with Mia Wasikowska.

The European Film Academy also presented several filmmakers with honorary awards. Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Library) received the European Achievement in World Cinema Award. The Spanish actress Laia Costa, presenting Coixet with the award, noted that the director has “opened the door” for women in the industry, noting on their recent film. Un Amor, “90 percent of the people in the set are women. It makes a difference.”

Citing the political comments from the beginning of the night, Coixet said that “at the very beginning of my career I realized that behind a camera there are no borders, no flags, no passports and no restrictions.”

Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia, Howards End) received the honor of European Lifetime Achievement. Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr (The Turin Horse, Werckmeister Harmonies) received a standing ovation from the EFA crowd when Mike Downey presented him with the prestigious Academy and Board President’s Award. It’s a rare find. Tarr is only the sixth filmmaker to be honored, following directors Manoel de Oliveira, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras, and actors Michel Piccoli and Michael Caine.

“I’m shocked. I swear to god, I really don’t know what to say. You must be overestimating my potential,” Tarr said. “I spoke to the youth, this morning, and they asked for my advice. I have no advice. All they have to do is find their own language, they have to be brave and they have to scare away from the cinema. If they don’t have money, don’t worry. They have phones, they can take pictures on your phone, they can edit them on your computer and distribute them on the internet. Most importantly, they must be free. We must all be free.”

The Euroimages European Co-Production Award, honoring excellence in cross-border film production, went to Lithuanian filmmaker Uljana Kim. Through his company, Studio Uljana Kim, he produced 34 features and records, almost all media, including The Moneylender (2013), Teesklejad (2016) and The Year Before the War (2021). Kim dedicated his prize to the late German Karl Baumgartner, a fellow pioneer.

From outside the film industry, the Turkish owner Güler Sabancı, the chairman of Sabancı Holding, received the European Sustainability Award, for his charity work to promote sustainable practices in many sectors.

Full list of winners for the 2023 European Film Awards

European movies

Anatomy of a Fall, dir. Justine Triet

European Records

Sauna Brothers, dir. His Advice

European Director

Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall

Westernized

Sandra Hüller inside Anatomy of a Fall

Actor Europe

Mads Mikkelsen in The Promised Land

European Journal

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for Anatomy of a Fall

European Studies – Prix FIPRESCI

How to Have Sex, dir. Molly Manning Walker

European Film Festival

Dream Robot, dir. Pablo Berger

European Short Films

Hard Work, dir. Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf

Western art

Rasmus Videbaek for The Promised Land

European Commission

Laurent Senéchal for Anatomy of a Fall

European score

Markus Binder for Club Zero

European Manufacturing Plan

Emita Frigato for La Chimera

European Fashion Design

Kicki Islander for The Promised Land

European Visual Show

Félix Bergés and Laura Pedrobest for Snow Society

European Hair and Makeup

Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé for Snow Society

European audio signal

Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers for The Situation Zone