At the opening ceremony of the 38th European Film Awards in Berlin today, Iranian director Jafar Panahi spoke about the terrible bloodshed and oppression in his homeland and the importance of speaking out.
“When truth is crushed in one place, freedom is suffocated everywhere,” he said. “And no one is safe anywhere in the world. Not in Iran, not in Europe, not in America, not anywhere on earth. That is why today our task as filmmakers and artists is more difficult than ever. If we are disappointed in politicians, we must at least refuse to be silent, because silence is not neutral in an age of crime. Silence is participation in the darkness.”
With these words, he declared the 38th edition of the awards to be held.
Variety will be broadcasting the winners live here. The livestream can be viewed at http://www.europeanfilmawards.eu.
“Sentimental Value” received five nominations, “Silat” received four nominations, and “The Sound of Falling” and “It Was Just an Accident” tied for three nominations each.
Nominees for the Best Film award include the narrative features It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value, Sirāt, Sound of Falling, and The Voice of Hind Rajab, as well as the documentaries Loneliness in the Afternoon, Fiume O Morte!, Riefenstahl, Song of the Slow Burning Earth, With Hasan in Gaza, and the animated films Arko and Dog of the Dog. God’, ‘Little Amelie’, ‘Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake’, and ‘Tales from the Enchanted Garden’.
The nominees for director are Yorgos Lanthimos for “Bugonia,” Oliver Lucks for “Silaat,” Panahi for “It Was an Accident,” Marcia Silinski for “The Sound of Fall,” and Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value.”
The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are Santiago Fillol and Lux for “Sirāt,” Panahi for “It Was Just an Accident,” Silinski and Louise Peter for “Sound of Falling,” Paolo Sorrentino for “La Grazia,” and Eskil Vogt and Trier for “Sentimental Value.”
The European Best Actress award is being chased by Leonie Benesch for The Late Shift, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi for The Deuce, Lea Drucker for Case 137, Vicky Krieps for Love Me Tender and Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value.
The Best Actor award is vying for Serge López for Silato, Mads Mikkelsen for The Last Viking, Toni Servillo for La Grazia, Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value, and Idan Weiss for Franz.
The nominees for best documentary are Alberto Serra’s “A Lonely Afternoon”, Igor Bejinovic’s “Fiume o Morte!”, Andres Weyer’s “Riefenstahl”, Olha Jurba’s “Song of the Slow Burning Earth”, and Kamal Al-Jafari’s “With Hassan of Gaza”.
It follows Hugo Bienvenue’s Arco, Laitis Abele and Laurice Abele’s Dogs of the Gods, Mairis Valade and Lian-Cho Han’s Little Amelie, Irene Iborra Rizzo’s Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake, as well as David Skup, Patrick Pasch and Leon Vidmar for the European Animated Feature Film award. “The Story of the Magic Garden” by Jean-Claude Rozec.
Nominees for the Discovery Award, given to first-time feature film directors, include Urszka Dzukic’s Little Trouble Girls, Akinola Davis Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow, and Laura’s Carrera’s On Falling, Murat Filatoglu’s One of the Days When They Die, Matthias Breau’s Sauna, and Mara Tamković’s Under the Gray Sky. The winner was “On Falling.”
The films nominated for the European Young Audience Award are Hugo Bienvenu’s Arco, Nora Lakos’ I Accidentally Wrote a Book, and Greta Scarano’s Siblings. The winner was “Brothers”.
Other awards to be presented Saturday include those for cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, makeup and hair, original score, sound, casting director, visual effects, and more.
At the ceremony, the European Lifetime Achievement Award went to Liv Ullmann, the European Achievement in World Cinema Award went to Alice Rohrwacher, and the Urimage International Co-Production Award went to Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski of Berlin’s Comprisen Film, whose credits include Sentimental Value.
