The European Film Academy has announced the winners of its awards
18 January 06:13
The European Film Academy Award for Best Film went to Joachim Trier’s Norwegian drama “The Sentimental Value.” The award ceremony took place on Saturday evening, January 17, at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, according to "Komersant Ukrainian", citing DW.
“Sentimental Value” was the absolute leader of the awards. In addition to the main award, prizes were also given to the actors, screenwriter, and composer of the film. The film has already received the Grand Prix at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
The lead actors, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård, played a daughter and father who cannot get along. She is a famous theater actress who unexpectedly receives an offer from her director father to star in his new film. However, many years ago, the man left the family, so the relationship between the relatives is extremely tense.
Another winner is the Spanish film “Sirat.”
Technical awards, namely prizes for cinematography, sound, editing, set design, and casting, went to the road movie “Sirat” by Spaniard Oliver Laxe. Laxe also became one of the favorites at Cannes 2025 and received the jury prize.
In “Sirat,” a father and his teenage son are looking for their party-girl daughter, who disappeared several months ago. At a rave party in Morocco, they meet a group of nomads and set off with them on a deadly journey through the desert.
The German film “The Sound of Falling” received an award for costume design
The award for best costume design went to the film “The Sound of Falling” by German director Masha Shilinski. The film premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the jury prize with “Sirat.”
Schilinski, together with screenwriter Louise Peter, came up with a story about four teenage girls who face similar traumatic situations. This is surprising because, although they lived on the same farm in the Altmark region in the east of the country, they lived at different times: in the 1920s, 1940s, 1980s, and today.
Honorary prizes went to Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann (for lifetime achievement) and Italian director Alice Rohrwacher (for her contribution to world cinema).
Jafar Panahi recalled the protests in Iran
Iranian director Jafar Panahi opened the awards ceremony. He is one of the most famous and influential contemporary authors, who has been tried many times in Iran. Panahi left his homeland in May last year to attend the Cannes Film Festival, where his award-winning film A Simple Accident premiered.
Panahi is currently traveling the world but plans to return to his homeland despite the threat of imprisonment. The director ended his speech dedicated to the victims of the Ayatollah regime, which, according to Panahi, has killed 12,000 demonstrators in recent weeks, with the phrase: “Silence is complicity with darkness.”
