EFA Awards, 2007: Still Looking Backwards

Would the 2007 European Film Academy Awards ceremony hold any surprises at all? That was the question on my mind as I watched the show in December. It was a cold night in Istanbul, and I had been reading, talking and writing all day, so I watched the show on ARTE in a dazed state. But no matter, the ceremony was perfectly digestible, even for someone only giving it half his attention. The talk was predictable, the Leningrad Cowboys (the Finnish rock band) jolted me awake every once in awhile with their ersatz music, silly antics and cartoonish hairdos, and the proceedings unfolded like all the film festivals that came before it. And that was the basic problem: precisely how was this any different from the film festivals that came before it? Hard to say, so let’s just take a look at what got nominated and what got won.

It would be difficult to pull off any surprises, considering the nominees that had been picked from the wide-ranging pre-selection. A lot of the productions that made it to the nomination round were familiar names, in fact, almost all of them, so that one wonders how many of the 1,800 EFA voters just checked off the names that they knew and didn’t even bother to look at all the DVDs they received in the mail for their viewing. There were the usual suspects from all the festivals, especially the films that were popular in Germany and elsewhere in the North, could it be that the German voters were far more diligent in sending in their votes this year than people in other countries? The Germanic speaking countries, including Scandinavia, make up more than a third of EFA membership, and this year their regional aesthetic seemed to really take the upper hand. A case in point: Marianne Faithful’s nomination for Irina Palme, (nice name for a film about a woman who is forced to maker her living giving hand jobs). Marianne Faithful makes a favorable impression with her acting, but it is so low-key and understated, that you have to wonder if her nomination was merely an afterglow of the notoriety that the film had received at the Berlin film festival and/or a co-product of her cult following. However, it was no stranger than some of the other nominations in this area: Anamaria Marinca for 4 Months, 3 Weeks (Okay, I can see that); but Carice van Houten for Black Book ? What were they thinking? I know that she is well known in Germany and other northern countries for her film and TV work, but her performance in this film was flippant and annoyingly coy. As it turned out, another stiff-upper-lip performance, that of Helen Mirren in The Queen took the prize, ahead of Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose and Ksenia Rappoport in La Sconosciuta , both excellent performances of a more flamboyant kind. There certainly seemed to be a Northern European aesthetic at play here, an admiration for the understated, a shrinking from the overly dramatic.

I guess deadpan performances were the key this year, otherwise, what could explain Sasson Gabai as European Best Actor with his nearly catatonic performance in The Band’s Visit ? I liked the film, but I was not overwhelmed by this performance, it just sort of went by unnoticed. I much preferred Elio Germano in My Brother is an Only Child , and Ben Whishaw in Perfume: the Story of a Murderer . But Michel Piccoli in Belle Toujours ? Of course, I understand: this was one of those back door life-time achievement things, but that film was such a disaster that it is a joke even to mention it in the context of an awards ceremony. Yes, Manoel de Oliveira turned 100 years old this year, so I am being truly bitchy saying anything bad about his film. He certainly deserved the Honorary Award that he received during the ceremonies, and everyone mercifully neglected to mention this sleeping pill of a film, so case closed.

The one category that seemed to make perfect sense was European Cinematographer, La Sconosciuta (The Unknown) and The Last King of Scotland were both beautifully filmed, Izgnanie (The Banishment) , a monumentally plodding homage to Tarkovsky, was saved from being a total disaster by the beautiful filmwork, and the winner, Das Parfum (Perfume) could be proud of its well deserved statuette.

Das Parfum also took another award, the Prix d’Excellence, which it received for Production Design. The other nominees included make-up for La Môme (La Vie en Rose) , presumably for the formidable job of making anyone look remotely like Edith Piaf, and costumes for Alatriste , because when a film costs as much as that one did, you should really find something good to say about it, and for sound for Vier Minuten (Four Minutes) because…. uh, why? because we are always impressed by classical music, no matter how bad it sounds?

The biggest puzzle of all, to my mind, was the Screenwriting Award going to Fatih Akin for Auf der Anderen Seite (the Edge of Heaven) . So, in other words, some voters actually figured out what that story was about? Or was he just getting a bone-toss from his German colleagues? Of course, the other films in the category were just the same old darlings that were winning awards everywhere else. Did no one bother to see films like Ladrones, I Served the King of England, My Brother is an Only Child ?

Best European Director award went to Cristian Mungiu for 4 Luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) . The film was excellent, and the direction was expert, moving the characters, and especially Marinca through a dark and unpredictable world. I would have personally gone with Tornatore for The Unknown , or Andersson for Du, Levande (You, the Living) , but what the hell.

But then Mungiu’s film won as best picture! The award smacked of bandwagoning, Yeah, he got the Golden Palm at Cannes, so are you going to argue with Cannes? Then in January, 2008, the film was up for the Golden Globes, but really fellows, enough was enough. There were other great films out there, and at the Golden Globes it had to compete with the big guys: Ang Lee, Julian Schnabel, Satrapi’s Persepolis and The Kite Runner , a controversial film about Afghanistan. (Julian Schnabel’s film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly eventually won that award).

So, yet another year went by for the EFA awards, without anything untoward to upset applecarts or ruffle egos. All the alpha males and females, festival darlings and clique leaders were appeased and sent home happy. The only casualty was the EFA award system itself, which put on yet another safe, predictable and lackluster performance. Rather than showing the way to the future, the EFA seems to just summarize the past, simply following the lead of the more influential festivals like Berlin and Cannes. I guess we will have to wait another year at least for the EFA to figure out a way to prove that it is more than just a year end summary of what has already been said. The ceremony takes place in Berlin every other year, and travels to other European cities in alternating years. Hopefully, the biennial traveling show will help to increase participation from other areas of Europe, to cut down on the cliquish feeling that one gets of a regional Film Awards in European drag. And then, if they can get the voters to actually watch the films in the pre-selection rather than just checking off the ones that they have already seen in festivals, maybe they can make this award really mean something.