Bosnian film becomes big winner at European Film Awards

BERLIN

The 34th European Film Awards (EFAs) was held with an online ceremony in Berlin on Dec. 11, celebrating excellence in European cinema.

Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic’s drama “Quo Vadis, Aida?” which tells the story of genocide in Srebrenica, became the biggest winner at the ceremony with top three awards: European Film 2021, Best Director honor for Žbanic and European actress honor for Jasna Duricic for her performance as a Bosnian translator.

Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee” also won three awards, including the Best European Animated Film, Best Documentary and the European University Film Award.

The third big winner was Sir Anthony Hopkins, who won the European Actor prize for his performance as a man with dementia in Florian Zeller’s psychological drama “The Father,” which also brought him the Oscar this year.

Zeller shared the honors for best European screenplay for the film with co-writer Christopher Hampton.

The technical categories saw winners from the Austrian drama “Great Freedom,” with the best cinematography awarded to Crystel Fournier, and also bagged the Best original score for Nils Petter Molvær and Peter Brötzmann.

The EFAs also announced the nominees for the newly-configured LUX Audience Award. The award, which was launched in September 2020 by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas, will be awarded to one of the three nominated films, “Flee,” “Great Freedom” and “Quo Vadis, Aida?”

All three films will be subtitled in all the 24 EU languages for the purpose of accessibility to a wide set of audiences.

The award will be given out on the basis of audience votes from a period of mid-December to May 25, 2022. The winner will be announced in a ceremony in the European Parliament on June 8, 2022.