#EFA2016 People's Choice Award

Every year, the EFA People’s Choice Award allows film fans across Europe to elect their favorite film. When the European Film Academy invites its members, Europe’s greatest film stars, directors, actors and actresses, to attend the European Film Awards, the People’s Choice Award sheds a spotlight on the people films are made for: the audience.

From 1 September to 31 October, film fans will vote for their favorite film and have the chance to win a trip to attend the 29th European Film Awards on Saturday, 10 December 2016 in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

Strongly suggest you vote but please remember that voting is open ONLY to Europeans; you can VOTE at official award site HERE. Have seen almost all movies and without doubt share that my vote unequivocally goes to Mustang!!! But admit there are others that are great films and good contenders for the audience award.

Aferim!, Radu Jude, Romania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic
Ciało (Body), Małgorzata Szumowska, Poland
En Man Som Heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway
Fucoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and France
Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Krigen (A War), Tobias Lindholm, Denmark
Le Tout Nouveau Testament (The Brand New Testament), Jaco van Dormael, Belgium, France and Luxembourg
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France, Germany and Turkey
Spectre, Sam Mendes, UK
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper, UK
The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, UK, Ireland, Greece, France and Netherlands
Zvizdan (The High Sun), Dalibor Matanić, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia

The winner of the EFA People’s Choice Award 2016 will be announced on stage during the European Film Awards Ceremony on 10 December in Wroclaw.

29th European Film Awards - Long List

It is with great pleasure that the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announce the titles of the 50 films on this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection, the list of feature fiction films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2016!

With 33 European countries represented, the list once again illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.

In the 20 countries with the most EFA Members, these members have voted one national film directly into the selection list. To complete the list, a Selection Committee consisting of EFA Board Members and invited experts Péter Bognár (Hungary), Dave Calhoun (UK), Paz Lazaro Barquilla (Spain), Christophe Leparc (France) and Alik Shpilyuk (Ukraine) has included further films.

In the coming weeks, the over 3,000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter. The nominations will then be announced on 5 November at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain. A 7-member jury will decide on the awards recipients in the categories European Cinematographer, Editor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Hair & Make-up Artist, Composer and Sound Designer.

The 29th European Film Awards with the presentation of the winners will take place on 10 December in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

Have some not-so-positive reactions to the long list as even when has many films that truly deserve to be honored, there is ONE film that I highly enjoyed that is not in list and yes, the absence upsets me. Grrr. Nevertheless hope film continues to be honored in different ways, like for example, one of the producing countries sends it to Oscars 2017 foreign-language category. Sigh

The List

24 Wochen (24 Weeks), Anne Zohra Berrached, Germany
Abluka (Frenzy), Emir Alper, Turkey, France and Qatar
Ausma (Dawn), Laila Pakalniņa, Latvia, Poland and Estonia
Bacalaureat (Graduation), Cristian Mungiu, Romania, France and Belgium

Cartas da Guerra (Letters from War), Ivo M. Ferreira, Portugal
Chevalier, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece and Germany
Córki Dansingu (The Lure), Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Poland
D'Ardennen (The Ardennes), Robin Pront, Belgium and Netherlands
Der Staat Gegen Fritz Bauer (The People vs. Fritz Bauer), Lars Kraume, Germany

Einer von Uns (One of Us), Stephan Richter, Austria
El Olivo (The Olive Tree), Iciar Bollain, Spain and Germany
Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France and Germany
En Man som heter ove (A Man Called Ove), Hannes Holm, Sweden and Norway

Florence Foster Jenkins, Stephen Frears, UK
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK and France
Já, Olga Hepnarová (I, Olga Hepnarova), Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and France
Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain

Kollektivet (The Commune), Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, Sweden and Netherlands
Köpek, Esen Işik, Switzerland
Krigen (A War), Thomas Lindholm, Denmark

L'Avenir (Things to Come), Mia Hansen-Løve, France and Germany
La Fille Inconnue (The Unknown Girl), Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium and France
La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy), Paolo Virzì, Italy and France

Mammal, Rebecca Daly, Ireland, Luxembourg and Netherlands
מעבר להרים ולגבעות Me'ever laharim vehagvaot (Beyond the Mountains and Hills), Eran Kolirin, Israel, Germany and Belgium
Mimosas, Oliver Laxe, Spain, Morocco, Qatar and France

Non Essere Cattivo (Don't Be Bad), Claudio Galigari, Italy
Obce Niebo (Strange Heaven), Dariusz Gajewski, Poland and Sweden
Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers), Paolo Genovese, Italy
Pesn Pesney (Song of Songs), Eva Neymann, Ukraine
Þrestir (Sparrows), Rúnar Rúnarsson, Iceland, Denmark and Croatia
Pyromanen (Pyromaniac), Erik Skjoldbjaerg, Norway, Sweden and Germany

Quand on a 17 ans (Being 17), André Téchiné, France
Rauf, Barış Kaya and Soner Caner, Turkey
Room, Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland and Canada

S One Strane (On the Other Side), Zrinko Ogresta, Croatia and Serbia
Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu, Romania and France
Smrt u Sarajevu (Death in Sarajevo), Danis Tanovic, Bosnia Herzegovina and France
Suffragette, Sarah Gavron, UK
Suntan, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Greece and Germany

The Paradise Suite, Joost Van Ginkel, Netherlands, Sweden and Bulgaria
Tikkun, Avishai Sivan, Israel
Tiszta szívvel (Kills on Wheels), Attila Till, Hungary
Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany and Austria
Truman, Cesc Gay, Spain and Argentina

Ученик Uchenik (The Student), Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia
Under Sandet (Land of Mine), Martin Zandvliet, Denmark and Germany
Zjednoczone stany miłości (United States of Love), Tomasz Wasilewski, Poland and Sweden
Ztraceni v Mnichově (Lost in Munich), Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic

29th European Film Awards - Documentary Selection

 It is with great pleasure that the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announce the EFA Documentary Selection, a list of 15 European documentaries recommended for a nomination for this year's European Film Awards.

Last year the European Academy changed the procedure to select the nominations in the documentary category and process became similar to the selection of short films nominees with ten (10) documentary festival recommending to EFA committee one film each which had its world premiere at the festival latest edition.

Chosen in co-operation with the European Documentary Network EDN, these festivals are:

IDFA (Netherlands)
CPH:DOX (Denmark)
Visions du Réel (Switzerland)
DokLeipzig (Germany)
Docslisboa (Portugal)
Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece)
Jihlava (Czech Republic)
Cinéma du Réel (France)
Krakow Film Festival (Poland)
Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK)

Based on their recommendations and the films individually submitted, the documentary committee, consisting of EFA Board Members Vanessa Henneman (Netherlands), Roberto Cicutto (Italy), and Marek Rozenbaum (Israel), documentary filmmaker Alexander Nanau (Romania) and documentary expert Paul Pauwels (European Documentary Network, Belgium) decided on the EFA Documentary Selection.

Most interesting is to realize that awards organizers in general are announcing earlier this year and EFA is no exception. Had to go back to find when EFA announced the doc selection and was last September, so in 2016 it's almost a month earlier. As a matter of fact this selection is announced before the most expected EFA long list! Not complaining as me, for one, enjoy to have more time to analyze and watch (if I haven't) the films before the nominations are selected.

Here are the fifteen (15) documentary films that made the 2016 EFA Selection.

21 x Nowy Jork (21 x New York), Piotr Stasik, Poland
A Family Affair, Tom Fassaert, Nehterlands and Belgium
Bella e Perduta (Lost and Beautiful), Pietro Marcello, Italy
Bref Manuel de libération (We'll Be Alright), Alexander Kuznetsov, France
Den unge Zlatan (Becoming Zlatan), Fredrik and Magnus Gertten, Sweden, Netherlands and Italy
Déjà vu, Jon Bang Carlsen, Denmark
Ein deutsches Leben (A German Life), Christian Krönes, Olaf S. Müller, Roland Schrotthofer and Florian Weigensamer, Austria
Europe, She Loves, Jan Gassmann, Switzerland and Germany
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), Gianfranco Rosi, Italy and Germany
Herr von Bohlen, André Schäfer, Germany
Mallory, Helena Třeštíková, Czech Republic
Mr. Gaga, Tomer Heymann, Israel, Sweden, Germany and Netherlands
Ο Πιο Μακρύς Δρόμος O Pio Makris Dromos (The Longest Run), Marianna Economou, Greece
Событие Sobytie (The Event), Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands and Belgium
The Land of the Enlightened, Pieter-Jan De Pue, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Germany



My spontaneous reaction to the selection is one that goes to the very-surprising side as yes, selection has some well-known docs like the 2016 Golden Bear winner or the one from one of my most favorite contemporary directors, Sergei Loznitsa; but was unaware of those films by photographers (one seems to be really disturbing BUT officially "I'm dying" to see it!) and yes definitively very interested in doc about the choreographer. Info about each film is not yet at official site but know soon will be here.

Will find info, trailer and poster for each film and will post links.
Check available info and trailers @MOC
Check available posters at my Pinterest

EFA Members will now vote for five documentary nominations. Based on these nominations, the EFA Members will then elect the ‘European Documentary 2016’ which will be announced during the awards ceremony on 10 December in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

18th Polskie Nagrody Filmowe ORŁY (Eagle Awards) Winners

Yesterday the Independent Film Foundation had their annual #‎Orły2016‬ award ceremony and the big winner of the night is none other than a film by outstanding filmmaker Małgorzata Szumowska that we just saw her last month in Berlin, as she was member of the main competition jury; but most important, in 2015 Berlinale she won the Silver Bear for Best Director for her film Ciało (Body), which last night won the two top awards, Best Film and Best Director as well as some more honors making film the BIG winner of the night.

I'm really glad that Polish cinema honored a great female filmmaker as I'm absolutely impressed with here still-developing particular style in her still-small body of work that includes Elles and In the Name Of. Great!!! Film was honored with four (4) awards BUT they were the top-four awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor!

Most interesting was the snubbing of Jerzy Skolimowski's 11 minut (11 minutes) that was in competition at 2015 Venice Fest, was Poland's submission to Oscars and last night, won only one award for Best Editing. Yes, is true, I wondered why they didn't send Body to Oscasrs and opted for a more well-known great director as Skolimowski is.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went this year to Janusz Gajos.

To check winners at the official site go here, available only in Polish. To read winners in English go article here.

Best Film: Ciało (Body), Małgorzata Szumowska
Best Documentary: Aktorka, Kinga Dębska and Maria Konwicka
Best European Film: Youth by Paolo Sorrentino

Best Director: Małgorzata Szumowska for Ciało (Body)

Best Actress: Maja Ostaszewska in Ciało (Body)
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Dymna in Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy (Eccentrics, or On the Sunny Side of the Street)

Best Actor: Janusz Gajos in Ciało (Body)
Best Supporting Actor: Wojciech Pszoniak in Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy (Eccentrics, or On the Sunny Side of the Street)

Discovery of the Year: Agnieszka Smoczyńska for directing Córki dancingu (The Lure)

Best Screenplay: Kinga Dębska for Moje córki krowy (These Daughters of Mine)
Best Cinematography: Arkadiusz Tomiak for Karbala
Best Production Design: Jagna Janicka for Hiszpanka (Influence)
Best Costumes: Dorota Roqueplo and Andrzej Szenajch for Hiszpanka (Influence)
Best Music: Wojciech Karolak for Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy (Eccentrics, or On the Sunny Side of the Street)
Best Sound: Krzysztof Jastrząb and Mateusz Irisik for Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy (Eccentrics, or On the Sunny Side of the Street)
Best Editing: Agnieszka Glińska for 11 minut (11 Minutes)

Audience Award: Moje córki krowy (These Daughters of Mine), Kinga Dębska

Ciało (Body) Trailer