Lars von Trier's wife Bente Froge accepting the European Film 2011 prize for the film 'Melancholia' on behalf of her husband. Photograph: Pool/Reuters
The apocalypse came with an added happy ending at the 24th annual European film awards in Berlin, as
Lars von Trier's Melancholia, an extravagant drama about the end of the world, took the crowning best film prize. The moment also marked a redemption of sorts for the picture's Danish director, following a turbulent year that saw him ejected from the Cannes film festival after joking that he was a Nazi. Von Trier was not at the ceremony but sent his wife, Bente Froge, to collect the award on his behalf.
Taking to the stage, Froge explained that her husband had taken a vow of silence in the wake of the Nazi row. "I should say from Lars that he has no statement for you," she told the guests. "But he did ask that I should wave to you in a kind and gentle way."
Melancholia stars the American actor Kirsten Dunst as a brittle manic-depressive who rises to the occasion when a rogue planet threatens imminent global destruction. In addition to its best film award, it also won for cinematography and production design.
It was a good night for British talent.
Colin Firth was named best actor for his Oscar-winning turn in The King's Speech, while
Tilda Swinton took the best actress prize for her acclaimed performance as an anguished American mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin. The award for the best short film went to
Terry Gilliam for The Wholly Family, the director's 20-minute fantasy about a boy's adventures in Naples.
Elsewhere, director
Stephen Frears was on hand to collect this year's lifetime achievement award, honouring an eclectic career that extends back from The Queen to films such as The Drifters, Dangerous Liaisons and My Beautiful Laundrette.
"This is a great honour and I'll try not to take it too seriously," Frears told the assembled members of the European film academy. "The truth is, I'm everything you don't approve of. I'm not an auteur and I don't write the scripts. I'm just a bloke who makes films and hopes the audience likes them." The members cheered him indulgently all the same
The Danish film-maker Susanne Bier was named best director for her hard-hitting drama In a Better World, while Pina, Wim Wenders' 3D homage to choreographer Pina Bausch, scooped the documentary prize. Arguably the biggest loser of the night was The Artist, which is already being tipped as a frontrunner at next year's Oscars. Michel Hazanavicius's silent-screen romance had to be content with just one award, for its composer Ludovic Bource.
But then the EFAs, which are voted for by 2500 members of the European film academy, has traditionally positioned itself as a riposte to the star-spangled, Hollywood-dominated Oscars. Outside the Tempodrom, near Potsdamer Platz, the red carpet was gleefully turned over to the likes of Volker Schlondorff and the Dardennes brothers, while the ceremony itself unfolded in a spirit of amiable chaos.
Yet what the EFAs lacked in showbiz professionalism, they made up for in conviviality. "Many European summits are being held at this time of crisis," explained Academy president Wim Wenders. "Those make us feel insecure. This one is different. It is about celebrating European culture and film. And looking at the films on offer, one could say that
Europe is in very good health."
For all that, many of the films on the EFA shortlist seemed to reflect wider tensions in the continent at large. There were tales of violence and racism, poverty and armageddon, while the "European Discovery" award went to the Belgian drama Oxygen, solemnly described by its presenter as "a tender film about terminal lung disease".
At one stage the stormy subject matter appeared to get too much for the event's host, German comedian Anke Engelke. "Last year you took your sweetheart to the movies," she quipped. "This year you had to take your therapist."
the Guardian
