Michael Haneke's compelling and quite disturbing Caché / Hidden was the big winner at the 2005 European Film Awards held this evening in Berlin. The psychological-political thriller was chosen best film, in addition to wins for director Haneke, actor Daniel Auteuil (above, with Juliette Binoche), and a best editing award for Michael Hudecek and Nadine Muse.
Berlin Film Festival winner Julia Jentsch won the best European actress award for her superb portrayal of one of the young leaders of the anti-Nazi German resistance in Sophie Scholl – Die Letzten Tage / Sophie Scholl – The Final Days. Jentsch also won the Jameson People's Choice Award, and so did Sophie Scholl's director, fellow Berlin Film Festival winner Marc
Rothemund.
Orlando Bloom was the People's Choice for best actor in Kingdom of Heaven.
The controversial Paradise Now, which has been accused of humanizing suicide bombers, won the best screenplay award for Hany Abu-Assad and Bero Beyer, while the best non-European film was George Clooney's classy Good Night and Good Luck.