European Film Awards - Much Love to "The Square"

by Nathaniel R

The annual European Film Awards have logged many frequent flyer miles over the years as they hop around to various host countries. Today they were held in Berlin Germany and multiple Oscar hopefuls in Best Foreign Language Film took home prizes. The Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square won the most statues and Hungary's Alexandra Borbely who stars in the weirdly compelling On Body and Soul (reviewed here) took Best Actress. You can see all the winners after the jump...

The EFA awards are considered a bellwether of sorts for Oscar's Foreign Film race (since many of the competing films are their countries submissions for the Oscar. Oscar will narrow down their very long eligibility list (92 films from all over the world) to 9 films this week from which 5 will be selected as nominees. We say this every year at this time but we won't stop saying it: they'd do well to make their numbers more consistent between categories. Why not 15 finalists like documentaries or 10 like shorts? Shouldn't all categories which end with 5 nominees but begin with a two part winnowing process like this reduce to the same amount of finalists before the actual nomination vote? Let's get some consistency in their Academy. Your consistency made you an institution in numerous other ways. 

The winners of the 2017 European Film Awards are...

FILM

• BPM (Beats Per Minutes) - France
• Loveless - Russia
• On Body and Soul -Hungary
• The Other Side of Hope - Finland
• The Square - Sweden ★

DIRECTOR

• Andrey Zvyagintsev for Loveless
• Ildiko Enyedi for On Body and Soul
• Yorgos Lanthimos for Killing of a Sacred Deer
• Aki Kaurismaki for The Other Side of Hope
• Ruben Ostlund for The Square  ★

ACTRESS

• Juliette Binoche for Bright Sunshine In
• Paula Beer for Frantz
• Isabelle Huppert for Happy End
• Florence Pugh for Lady Macbeth
• Alexandra Borbely for On Body and Soul ★

ACTOR

• Nahuel Perez Biscayart for BPM (Beats Per Minute)
• Jean-Louis Trintignant for Happy End
• Josef Hader for Farewell to Europe
• Colin Farrell for Killing of a Sacred Deer 
• Claes Bang for The Square  ★ (our interview)

SCREENPLAY

• François Ozon for Frantz
• Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev for Loveless
• Ildiko Enyedi for On Body and Soul
• Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou for Killing of a Sacred Deer
• Ruben Ostlund for The Square  ★

COMEDY

• King of the Belgians - Belgium
• The Square - Sweden ★
• Vincent at the End of the World - Belgium
• Welcome to Germany - Germany

DISCOVERY

• Bloody Milk - France
• Godless - France
• Lady Macbeth - UK ★
• Summer 1993 - Spain
• The Eremites - Germany

DOCUMENTARY

• Austerlitz - Germany
• Communion - Poland ★
• La Chana - Spain
• Stranger in Paradise - The Netherlands
• The Good Postman - Bulgaria

ANIMATED FILM 

• Ethel & Ernest - UK / Luxembourg
• Louise by the Shore - France / Canada
• Loving Vincent -  Poland / UK  ★
• Zombillenium - France / Belgium

Ethel & Ernest and Loving Vincent are both eligible for the Animated Feature Oscar this year. Loving Vincent has been doing very well for itself in precursors despite what seemed, at least to these eyes, like mixed feelings about it. Is it a threat to the Animated Feature Oscar or will it be a surprise snub given their past feelings about rotoscoping?

SHORT FILM

• Copa-Loca - Greece
• En La Boca - Switzerland / Argentina
• Fight on a Swedish Beach - Sweden
• Information Skies - The Netherlands
• Love - Hungary / France
• The Artificial Humors - Portugal
• The Circle - Turkey
• The Disinherited - Spain
• The Party - Ireland
• Timecode - Spain  ★
• Ugly - Germany
• Wannabe -Austria / Germany
• Written / Unwritten - Romania
• You Will Be Fine - France
• Young Men At Their Window - France

Timecode, the winner here, was nominated for an Oscar last season, losing to Sing

ADDITIONAL PRIZES

• PEOPLE'S CHOICE Stefan Zweig, Farewell to Europe ★
• EDITOR Robin Campillo, BPM (Beats Per Minute)  ★
• CINEMATOGRAPHY Loveless ★
• SCORE Loveless ★
• PRODUCTION DESIGNER Josefin Asberg, The Square  ★
• COSTUME DESIGNER Katarzyna Lewinska, Spoor  ★
• MAKEUP ARTIST Leendert van Nimwegen, Brimstone  ★
• SOUND DESIGN Oriol Tarrago, A Monster Calls  ★
• EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION Cedomir Kolar, Croatia  ★
• ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA Julie Delpy, France  ★
• LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Alekandr Sokurov, Russia  ★

Comments

[Peggy Sue]

I just don't see the Oscar voters loving The Square. Remember last year with Toni Erdmann? It will get nominated, sure, but do you see it winning? Maybe I'm wrong because I don't love it (too long = ends repeating itself). I'll admit it has one the best sequences of the year, tough.

[Robert G]

I think the sheer ambition of Loving Vincent is carrying it to a lot of attention. I know the plot isn't the strongest element, but imagine how easily recreating van Gogh's art style for the entirety of a feature film could have gone wrong. The film is stunning to look at.

Similarly, the animation category has pretty consistently had a incredibly beautiful if also pretty damn thin nominee quite often (Corpse Bride comes to mind, as well as my beloved Triplets of Belleville and Tale of Princess Kaguya). These are like "most animated" nominees, similar to the "most makeup" or "most costumes" nominees (or even "loudest" as the criteria for Sound Mixing/Editing for so many years). They're not bad, but they're being touted as excellent for the physical quality of the craft rather than the narrative elements.

[NATHANIEL R]

Robert G -- that's a great point. I can totally see that.

[adri]

It's the collective force of the intense feelings all the 100+ artists who worked on "Loving Vincent" and thought about it everyday for years, that knocked me over with a wave of their love and commitment.

Usually, you get kind of a sense of the personalities who've worked on a film, but it's kind of a secondary thing.

Here the artists are so present, it's like standing in a room full of Van Gogh's very vocal and very intense friends. How often do we get any kind of movie with such a concerted, committed, talented group effort over years?

[Claran]

Surprise to see Agnes Varda's Faces Places missing a nom in Documentary? It seems to hav a rather gd chance o winning at the Oscars.

[Owl]

Surprised not to see Faces Places in the nominees' list too. It was well received in this year's Cannes. But then there are many sides to Europe more than Cannes.

But Claes Bang's win here might -- just might -- be a surprise Oscar nominee. One can hope.

Along with Daniela Vega and Eili Harboe (Thelma), Bang is one of the best this year.

[CharlieG]

I'm seeing On Body and Soul on Tuesday at the AFI EU Film Festival! Now, I can't wait to see it!

[DJDeeJay]

@Peggy Sue - I liked but didn't love The Square. What's the sequence you're referring to?