CONTENTS European Film Awards 2011 Welcome to the 24th European Film Awards ceremony
NOMINATIONS 2011 24-26 EUROPEAN FILM 28-29 EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 30-31 EUROPEAN ACTRESS 32-33 EUROPEAN ACTOR 34-35 EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 36
37 38
39
2 WIM WENDERS President, European Film Academy
4 6 8 9
YVES MARMION Chairman, European Film Academy Board
BERND NEUMANN Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor
KLAUS WOWEREIT Governing Mayor of Berlin
22
ANDROULLA VASSILIOU European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Youth and Sport
23
10-11 BEHIND THE GLAMOUR Interview with Marion Döring, director, European Film Academy
INTERVIEW
Veteran UK film-maker Stephen Frears — who was at the founding meeting of the European Film Academy — tells Geoffrey Macnab about the difference between European and American cinema, why he likes directing other people’s scripts, and his fondness for singing with Bernardo Bertolucci
On an autumn afternoon in Soho in central Lon- don, UK director Stephen Frears is hard at work editing his new fi lm Lay The Favorite, a gambling drama set in Las Vegas and New Orleans, starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vince Vaughn. Frears — who is receiving the European Film
Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award tonight — cuts a slightly dishevelled fi gure: he is wearing a T-shirt and his hair doesn’t look as if it has enjoyed any recent encounters with a comb. He recalls how he was at the founding meeting of the European Film Academy in Berlin in 1989 along with other stalwarts of European cinema includ- ing Wim Wenders, Krzysztof Zanussi, Bernardo Bertolucci and Claude Chabrol. “I remember I flew back from the Academy
Awards [to be at the meeting],” says Frears. “EFA wanted to be different from the Academy Awards and I remember thinking, ‘I don’t quite know if you can set up a different system.’” One of the suggestions from the UK fi lm-mak-
ers in attendance was to present a prize to vision- ary and supportive European producers. Frears says the Polish-born Zanussi laughed at the sug- gestion. When they asked why, he explained that in Soviet-era Poland, the state was the producer. “And why would you give the state a prize?” he asked. EFA never introduced that award. Frears is passionate about European cinema
which, he says, has “completely different values” to those of American cinema. “The European values go back to Jean Renoir,”
he explains. “They are very… humanist.” And the Americans? “I don’t want to be unkind
to them. It’s just different. It is to do with enter- tainment.” But the UK director suggests he is not “a very
good example” of a European-style auteur. He doesn’t write or develop his own projects “like a proper European”, but directs films written by other people. However, he adds he and Bernardo Bertolucci tend to sing songs from The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg whenever they meet.
EFA Lifetime Achievement Award Stephen Frears 54 ■ European Film Awards 2011 54-57
LEARNING THE ROPES It is nearly 50 years since the Leicester-born Frears started collaborating with the likes of Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz on stage and screen and 40 years since his debut as a director on Gumshoe in 1971. Since then Frears, like his near contemporaries Michael Apted and Mike Newell, has made films in every conceivable genre: comedies, social dramas, period pieces and hardboiled thrillers.
I like the whole experience of
receiving scripts. I like being surprised
“I like being hired. I like the whole experience
of receiving scripts. I like being surprised,” he explains. Ask him to defi ne the “Frears stamp” and he
parries the question: “If there is one, I don’t know what it is.” Observers point to his craftsmanship, his
adaptability, his fl air for working with actors, his mild subversiveness. And for his own part, Frears posits his apprenticeship in UK TV drama in what was the golden period of the 1970s and 1980s. His credits then included the Alan Ben- nett-scripted A Day Out, and Three Men In A Boat, adapted from Jerome K Jerome’s novel by Tom Stoppard and starring Michael Palin. “You were taught to direct what was in front of
you,” he says, recalling these early days. Like being made to eat vegetables as a kid? “No, it’s not as merciless as that,” Frears says.
“But I really come from a writers’ theatre, and tel- evision was a writers’ medium. You didn’t get ideas above your station. I was there to serve the writer.” Anderson and Reisz, arguably his two most
important mentors, were fi lm-makers rooted in the European tradition. Anderson’s most cele- brated fi lm If… (on which Frears worked) self- consciously harked back to French director Jean Vigo’s 1930s classic Zero De Conduite. Anderson was also inspired by, and supportive of, the Czech New Wave of the early 1960s. Reisz was from a central European background. He famously called Frears “a very bright chap” after hiring him for his 1966 film Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Reisz had a reputation as a kind man. Anderson
is less often described in that way. “Peppery,” is the word Frears uses. “But his heart was in the right place. He was very, very intelligent and a very good teacher of life.” It could be argued Frears has outstripped both
Reisz and Anderson. He has certainly made far more fi lms than either. “I remember Jack Clayton saying to me after I made my fi rst fi lm, ‘Don’t be like us, don’t wait fi ve
European Film Awards 2011 ■ 55
12-15 CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A rundown of sponsors and partners
16-17 A WORD FROM EFA’S PATRONS Highlighting the continent’s fi lm diversity
20
HOST: ANKE ENGELKE The German comedy star returns to host the European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin
MUSIC: SHANTEL The trailblazing performer provides the tunes for the night
AFTER-SHOW PARTY 24-52 NOMINATIONS 2011 INTERVIEW 44 EUROPEAN EDITOR
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER
EUROPEAN COMPOSER
40-41 EUROPEAN DISCOVERY — PRIX FIPRESCI Presented to a young, up-and-coming director for their fi rst feature fi lm
42
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY — PRIX ARTE The three nominees selected by a panel of EFA members and documentary experts
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
46-48 EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM
50-51 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST EUROPEAN FILM Film fans across the continent elect their favourite European fi lm via an online vote
The versatile Danish star talks to Geoffrey Macnab about working across Hollywood and Europe, going into the wilderness with Nicolas Winding Refn, and why Casino Royale was like shooting a Dogme film
He is the Bond villain who cried blood, the Copenhagen drug dealer from Pusher, the Viking warrior from Valhalla Rising. But Mads Mikkelsen is just as comfortable playing comedy and romantic leads. The Danish actor who is receiving the honorary European Achievement in World Cinema 2011 award at this year’s EFAs, is one of the most versatile and hard-working Euro- pean actors of his generation. He is also one of the few European stars who can switch from character parts to leading roles; who can play working-class types, aristocrats and artists and intellectuals with equal ease. Speaking in late November, a fortnight or so
before he was due in Berlin to pick up his award at the EFAs, Mikkelsen was back home in Denmark having just fi nished a gruelling shoot on Michael Kohlhaas, a period piece about a 16th century horse trader on a quest for justice. The fi lm, in which he stars opposite Bruno Ganz and Sergi López was directed by Arnaud des Pallières and shot in French — Mikkelsen’s second fi lm in the language after his portrayal of Igor Stravinsky in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. Not that Mikkelsen was relaxing. “Three days!”
he exclaims when asked how long a break he was given after finishing Michael Kohlhaas. He had barely set foot back home in Denmark when he started work on his next role in Thomas Vinter- berg’s The Hunt (Jagten). He plays a divorcee in a small town accused of abusing a child. This marks Mikkelsen’s fi rst professional collaboration with Vinterberg, a director he has known for many years. The fi lm, which is being made by Zentropa, is shooting until Christmas. Mikkelsen appears in almost every scene, so he has had to ask for special leave to come to Berlin to pick up his award. The producers have given him a half-day break. “With great humbleness and a big smile,” was
(From top) Stephen Frears’ debut as director Gumshoe, starring Albert Finney, and his 1985 breakthrough My Beautiful Laundrette, which introduced Daniel Day-Lewis
European Achievement in World Cinema 2011 Mads Mikkelsen 58 ■ European Film Awards 2011
EFA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD — STEPHEN FREARS The veteran UK fi lm-maker on the difference between European and American cinema — and his fondness for singing with Bernardo Bertolucci
62-63 THE YEAR IN EUROPEAN CINEMA European fi lm-makers are forcing critics and global audiences to sit up and take note
Mikkelsen’s reaction when he heard he was to be feted by the EFA. “There is very little to say when you are honoured with an award of this calibre other than that I am deeply grateful. Seeing the list of former recipients, all giants, and realising that people outside my family keep an eye on my work,
It was the face, the energy and
the attitude. There was
beauty and the beast Nicolas Winding Refn
52
makes me accept this award with great humble- ness and a big smile.” Was he surprised to receive such an award when
he is only 46, not generally an age at which you pick up such honours? “At fi rst, but then I looked at the list of previous winners. Thomas Vinterberg won and he was 23,” jokes Mikkelsen, who has pre- viously been nominated twice for best actor at the European Film Awards: for Flame And Citron (Flammen & Citronen) in 2008 and for After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet) in 2006. He adds that he doesn’t believe his Achievement In World Cin- ema honour is “a lifetime achievement award”.
AGGRESSION AND VULNERABILITY It is hard to separate Mikkelsen’s career from that of director Nicolas Winding Refn, who cast him in Pusher in 1996 and has gone on to make four fi lms with the actor. Refn has called him his “alter ego” and speaks of the extraordinary rapport they have on set. “It was the face, the energy and the attitude,” is
what Refn says drew him to Mikkelsen. “There was a beauty and the beast [quality]… an aggressive- ness and yet extreme vulnerability. That’s what all great movie stars have — a mixture of vulnerability and bestiality.” Ask the actor where the aggression comes from
and he parries the question. “I can also carry a lot of inner love if I have to,” he protests. Mikkelsen’s route into acting was circuitous. He
European Film Awards 2011 ■ 59
(From top) Mikkelsen shines in the period feature Flame And Citron; and the contemporary drama After The Wedding
EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD — PRIX EURIMAGES An annual award acknowledging the importance of co-productions in the European fi lm industry. This year’s recipient of the Prix Eurimages is Madrid-based producer Mariela Besuievsky
58-61 EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA — MADS MIKKELSEN The versatile Danish star talks about working across Hollywood blockbusters and ambitious European fi lms
64-68 EUROPEAN CINEMA AT THE BOX OFFICE A look at how the continent’s fi lms have been performing at the local and global box offi ce in 2011
SPOTLIGHT
What a beautiful year for cinema
A group of crowd-pleasing European films have triumphed in their home markets this year, often outpacing Hollywood titles. Screen International deputy editor Louise Tutt looks at the biggest hits and the surprise successes
Home is where the heart is for most of the big European hits this year. Titles such as Dany Boon’s French culture-clash comedy Nothing To Declare (Rien A Déclarer), Gennaro Nunziante’s Italian charmer What A Beautiful Day (Che Bella Giornata), Kokowääh, the latest romantic com- edy from German superstar Til Schweiger, and Santiago Segura’s Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis, have all enjoyed stellar performances in their local markets. All are comedies, and all are very culturally
specifi c. They have all made most of their money in their national markets. The best chance most of them have of finding a sizeable audience beyond their own borders may be to be remade and recalibrated to national tastes. Nothing To Declare (Rien A Declarer), released
by Pathé, stars Boon and Benoît Poelvoorde as rival customs offi cers of the France-Belgium bor- der. It has grossed ¤50.1m in France alone (and ¤6m in Belgium) to make it the biggest fi lm in France this year to date. In Italy, Medusa opened What A Beautiful Day
in January to see it become the most successful Italian fi lm of all time, garnering ¤43.8m in its home market. The good-humoured, engaging story of a buffoonish security guard at a Milan cathedral who falls in love with a supposed ter- rorist, was embraced by critics and audiences in need of light relief from the tawdry real-life exploits of Italy’s now-former prime minister. Indeed, What A Beautiful Day has taken nearly double the amount Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has in the territory. Following his two Rabbit Without Ears (Kein-
ohrhasen and Zweiohrküken) fi lms, Schweiger’s Kokowääh is the latest massive hit for the Ger- man writer-director-producer-actor. In this fi lm, he brought his daughter along for the ride to star as the little girl who knocks on his door claiming to be his character’s daughter from a one-night- stand. It has taken the lion’s share of its box offi ce in Germany to gross ¤30.3m and was second only to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the country as of October 30.
64 ■ European Film Awards 2011 In Spain, Segura delivered the fourth episode
detailing the popular exploits of his titular crea- tion, the crude and crass private detective José Luis Torrente. Torrente 4 broke box offi ce records in its first weekend and has gone on to gross nearly ¤20m for Warner Bros Spain. It is the highest- grossing fi lm in Spain this year to date, ahead of both Harry Potter 8 and Pirates Of The Caribbean 4. A great deal of the appeal of Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis is down to the cast: an array of popular Spanish fi gures, from comedians to footballers. Similarly, the star of What A Beautiful Day is renowned TV comedian Checco Zalone, and in the UK and the Netherlands, two of the biggest films of the year are film versions of popular, homegrown TV series.
However, few in the UK predicted quite the success of The Inbetweeners Movie, which has grossed ¤52.6m in its home territory. The story of four hapless but likeable teenagers on a sex- and booze-fuelled holiday was released by Entertainment Film Distributors in mid- August, in the middle of the summer holidays. As the TV series enjoys a cult — but not huge — following, it was the positive word of mouth on the fi lm which propelled it to within a royal whisker of The King’s Speech in the UK market (The King’s Speech grossed ¤53.5m). It is the third-biggest fi lm of the year in its home territory. (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the biggest). Similarly, the Dutch sensa- tion of the year is Gooische Vrouwen (literally, Gooische Women), a fi lm version of a now-cancelled Dutch TV series. With echoes of both Desperate Housewives and Sex And The City, it fol- lows the lives, loves and friend- ships of wealthy women.
four Nothing To Declare Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis
TOP 50 EUROPEAN FILMS AT THE EUROPEAN BOX OFFICE, 2011* Title (origin)
1
2 3 4 5 6
Harry Potter And The Deathly... Part 2 (UK-US) The King’s Speech (UK) Nothing To Declare (Fr)
Johnny English 2 (UK-US-Fr) The Inbetweeners Movie (UK) Gnomeo & Juliet (UK)
7 What A Beautiful Day (It) 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Kokowääh (Ger) Unknown (Fr)
Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis (Sp) 127 Hours (UK-US) Eyyvah Eyvah 2 (Turk) The Skin I Live In (Sp) One Day (UK)
The Women On The Sixth Floor (Fr) 19 Whatsoeverly (It)
20 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Fr-UK-Ger) 21
The Immature (It)
22 Gooische Vrouwen (Neth) 23
Animals United (Ger) What A Beautiful Day Gooische Vrouwen
24 Manual Of Love 3 (It) 25 Colombiana (Fr-US) 26
Vicky And The Treasure Of The Gods (Ger)
27 How Not To Rescue A Princess (Rus) 28 Hanna (UK-Ger) 29 What A Man (Ger) 30 The Eagle (UK-US)
31 Women Versus Men (It) 32
35 Habemus Papam (It)
36 Office Romance: Our Time (Rus) 37 38
Lucky Trouble (Rus) L’Élève Ducobu (Fr)
39 Männerherzen Und Die... Grosse Liebe (Ger) 40 Almanya: Welcome To Germany (Ger-Tur) 41 42 43 44
Les Tuche (Fr)
Valley Of The Wolves: Palestine (Tur) Pina (Ger-Fr-UK)
La Guerre Des Boutons (Fr)
45 War Of The Buttons (Fr) 46 47 48
49 Melancholia (Den) 50 Headhunters (Nor)
La Chance De Ma Vie (Fr-Bel) The Well Digger’s Daughter (Fr) Titeuf: The Film 3D (Fr)
Love Likes Coincidences (Tur)
33 Harry Potter And The
Deathly..Part 1 (UK-US) 34 Case Départ (Fr)
Midnight In Paris (Sp-Fr-US)
The Three Musketeers (Ger-UK-US) Paul (UK-US)
31
30 12 25 1
25 2
22 19 25 5
28 1
24 3
15 16 6 1 1 1
2
17 1
24 3 2
27 1
24 2 3
25 3 7 5 5 2 3 3 2 4
13 4 3 8 3 3
18 3
No of territories Total gross (€)
¤320.4m ¤140.5m ¤63.2m ¤55.5m ¤51.5m ¤46.2m ¤43.6m ¤39.8m ¤38.0m ¤35.2m ¤35.1m ¤31.3m ¤19.6m ¤19.1m ¤18.4m ¤16.6m ¤16.2m ¤15.9m ¤15.8m ¤15.5m ¤15.1m ¤14.9m ¤14.1m ¤14m
¤13.8m ¤12.8m ¤12.4m ¤12.18m ¤12.17m ¤12.09m ¤11.7m ¤11.4m ¤11.4m ¤10.9m ¤10.8m ¤10.7m ¤10.3m ¤10.1m ¤9.8m ¤9.7m
¤9.65m ¤9.4m ¤9.3m ¤9.1m ¤9.0m ¤8.8m ¤8.5m ¤8.4m ¤8.2m ¤8.16m
European Film Awards 2011 ■ 65
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD
European Film Awards 2011 ■ 1
* To Oct 30. Chart compiled by Louise Tutt and Ian Sandwell from IBOE fi gures
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