Polanski’s Ghost Writer Dominates 4th European Film Awards

Award season is among us on both sides of the Atlantic. Today the European Film Academy handed out their annual awards in Tallinn, Estonia and the big winner of the evening was Roman Polanski’s Ghost Writer, claiming six awards, including Best Picture. Lebanon Israeli’s Golden Lion winner of 2009, collected a pair: the award for European discovery, handed out to first time directors (“it’s an honor being discovered when you’re close to 50”, said 48 year old director Samuel Maoz upon receiving the award), and the award for Best Cinematography, handed to Giora Bejach, for his extraordinary work, shooting an (almost) entire film from the POV of a tank.

Lebanon has an enormous artistic appeal, as it demonstrates the claustrophobic feeling leading audiences to believe the film was shot within the confines a tank, when in reality, Maoz didn’t have a tank at his disposal. Israeli audiences didn’t seem to connect to the film, it failed miserably at the Israeli box office – several thought the presentation of the weak Israeli soldier was insincere. We still hope that such awards will encourage investors to back Maoz’s next project.

Here are all the winners  

EUROPEAN FILM 2010
THE GHOST WRITER, France/Germany/UK
directed by Roman Polanski
written by Robert Harris & Roman Polanski
produced by Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde & Roman Polanski

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2010
Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2010
Sylvie Testud in LOURDES

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2010
Ewan McGregor in THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2010
Robert Harris & Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2010
Giora Bejach for LEBANON

EUROPEAN EDITOR 2010
Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier for CARLOS

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2010
Albrecht Konrad for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2010
Alexandre Desplat for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2010- Prix FIPRESCI
LEBANON, Israel/Germany/France
written & directed by Samuel Maoz
produced by Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, David Silber, Uri Sabag, Einat Bickel, Benjamina Mirnik & Illan Girard

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY – Prix ARTE 2010
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Nostalgia for the Light), France/Germany/Chile
Directed by Patricio Guzmán

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2010
THE ILLUSIONIST by Sylvain Chomet

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2010
HANOI – WARSZAWA (Hanoi – Warsaw), Poland
by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz

EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD – Prix EURIMAGES 2010
Zeynep Özbatur Atakan, producer

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Bruno Ganz, actor

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2010
Gabriel Yared, composer

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD for Best European Film 2010
MR. NOBODY
written and directed by Jaco van Dormael
produced by Philippe Godeau