Excellence Awards

The European Film Academy announces the first winners who will be honoured at this year’s European Film Awards. A special seven-member jury convened in Berlin and, based on the EFA Selection list and the additional film entries, decided on the winners in the categories cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, hair & make-up, composer and sound design. The members of the jury were:

Benoît Barouh, production designer, France

Paco Delgado, costume designer, Spain

Martin Gschlacht, cinematographer, Austria

Dean Humphreys, sound designer, UK

Era Lapid, editor, Israel

Waldemar Pokromski, make-up artist, Poland

Giuliano Taviani, composer, Italy

The European Film Academy congratulates the following awards recipients:

EFA Feature Film Selection 2016

European Cinematographer 2016 – Prix Carlo di Palma:

Camilla Hjelm Knudsen

for LAND OF MINE

Camilla Hjelm Knudsen’s cinematography creates a tension that supports the uniquely suggestive atmosphere of the film with great perfection. From the first moment, the visual language captures and impresses the spectator, demonstrating in great subtlety how much composition and lighting can contribute to the dramaturgy of a film and support story and characters in an unobtrusive way.

EFA FEature Film Selection 2016

European Editor 2016:

Anne Østerud & Janus Billeskov Jansen

for THE COMMUNE

The editing creates a light and humoristic atmosphere and then changes this into a feeling of losing control, when all that was planned by the heroine is turning against her. While doing all this, the editing also underlines what is so essential to this film in particular: the movement between the single person and the commune at every given moment of the film.

EFA Feature Film Selection 2016

European Production Designer 2016:

 Alice Normington

for SUFFRAGETTE

Avoiding the dangers of a visual representation of the period, with great sensitivity the beautiful production design by Alice Normington offers a natural view of the beginning of the century in London, allowing us to watch the movie without feeling the weight of its reconstruction.

EFA Feature Film Selection 2016

European Costume Designer 2016:

Stefanie Bieker

for LAND OF MINE

With extraordinary attention to detail, Stefanie Bieker achieves a high level of realism and at the same time an intense lyricism that the clothes breathe throughout the story. She takes extreme care to express the different characters, making each of them look like an individual, and, in doing so she surpasses the difficulty of working with the restrained palette of uniforms and the negation of individuality that they represent. The evident harmony with the other visual departments makes every frame of this movie come alive.

EFA Feature Film Selection 2016

European Hair & Make-up Artist 2016:

Barbara Kreuzer

for LAND OF MINE

The make-up in the LAND OF MINE stands out in a discreet and unobtrusive way, at the same time contributing to the dramaturgy of the film. Hair and faces perfectly match the costumes creating magnificent, full characters.

EFA Feature Film Selection 2016

European Composer 2016:

 Ilya Demutsky

for THE STUDENT

The music, with its contemporary sacred structure, expresses intensely the dark fascination of the spiral of intolerance that religious fanaticism can generate.

European Sound Designer 2016:

Radosław Ochnio

for 11 MINUTES

The sound design is hugely important for the understanding of the main characters and their anxieties. It successfully, in combination with the music, supports the story with its clever use of changing between ‘real life’ sound and a focus on the gradually increasing emotional and physical conflict that unfolds throughout the movie. The sound design never imposes itself too much but is a vital and very well crafted part of it.

Berlin, 17 November 2016

Since its successful pan-European launch in November 2022 Europe’s own film and award season, the Month of European Film has been growing continuously: Starting with 35 partners from 35 countries in 2022, the Month of European Film collaborated in 2024 with 108 partners from 42 countries. The number of screenings of European films within the initiative rocketed from 1,553 in 2022 to 9,310 in 2023 to 16,140 screenings in the 2024 edition. Admissions increased from 61,199 in 2022 to 164,206 in 2023 to almost half a million admissions (467,697) in the last year. The participating partners reported that their activities during the Month of European Film increased audience interest in European films and it also makes them want to programme more European films in the future. This is the result of an evaluation with the participating partners of this unique initiative.

“The European Film Academy senses growing interest in Europe for an ‘award season’ celebrating the best European cinema has to offer,” says Mattthijs Wouter Knol, Academy CEO and Director. “With the Month of European Film we build a network and a window for the simultaneous celebration of European cinema and to bring the diversity of European film closer to home for many people: first of all to their local cinema. Only three years into the initiative we are proud and happy that the Month of European Film is becoming more and more visible across Europe and is attracting a significantly growing number of visitors from Norway to Malta, from Portugal to Georgia. In the upcoming years until the European Film Academy’s 40th anniversary in 2028, we will further build a European ‘award season’ with our partners. It is time to deepen the awareness of European film culture. It is time to bring us as Europeans closer together through the culture and values we share: cinema has that power.”

Feedback from the audience regarding the Month of European Film was also very positive: The partners reported that in an audience survey cinema visitors from across Europe saw the Month of European Film as an important celebration of European culture. They said the Month of European Film has raised their interest in European films significantly and that they would like to see more European films. It also made them feel more united with fellow Europeans.

This year, the Month of European Film will start with the nominations announcement on Tuesday 18 November 2025, with cinemas all over Europe offering a tailor-made programme for their local audience. The Month of European Film will have its grand finale on Saturday 17 January 2026 with the celebration of the European Film Awards in Berlin.

The Month of European Film is an initiative of the European Film Academy supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, in co-operation with Europa Cinemas, CICAE, MUBI, DAFilms, Festival Scope, as well as numerous other European and local partners.

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