European Film Awards 2004 Winners
by Andre Soares
The German drama Gegen die Wand / Head-On was announced as the best European Film at the 2004 European Film Awards ceremony in Barcelona.
Directed by Fatih Akin, Gegen die Wand is the story of a young Turkish-German woman (Sibel Kekilli) who marries an older Turkish man (Birol Ünel) in order to escape her strict Muslim family. Earlier this year, Gegen die Wand won both the Golden Bear and the International Critics’ FIPRESCI prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Additionally, the film won five Lolas — the German Film Academy Award: Best film, best actor, best actress, best director, and best cinematography (Rainer Klausmann).
Spaniard Javier Bardem (right) was chosen as the year’s best actor for his performance as a tetraplegic fighting for the right to die in Alejandro Amenábar’s Mar adentro / The Sea Inside, while Vera Drake, Mike Leigh’s drama about a part-time abortionist in 1950s England, brought the best actress award to Imelda Staunton.
Other winners included best non-European film 2046 (above), Wong Kar Wai’s tale about the romantic adventures of a writer, starring Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, and several other major Chinese stars; Norwegian actress-director Liv Ullmann, who won the European achievement in world cinema prize — and who also happened to receive the longest standing ovation of the evening; and Spanish director Carlos Saura, who took home the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The evening’s biggest loser was Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, whose outstanding La Mala educación / Bad Education garnered seven nominations but no wins. This unusual dramatic comedy stars Gael García Bernal and Fele Martínez as two men caught between the present and their traumatic past.
The awards were presented by the European Film Academy (EFA), whose current president is German director Wim Wenders. The EFA is composed of 1,600 film industry professionals from all over Europe.
"It’s important that we celebrate what is being done in film over here," said actress Penélope Cruz, winner of the Jameson People’s Choice best actress award for her role in Sergio Castellitto’s Italian film Non ti muovere / Don’t Move (right).
2004 European Film Awards Winners and Nominees
2005 European Film Awards Winners and Nominees
2006 European Film Awards Winners and Nominees
French Film Critics Awards Étoiles d’Or 2004
More than 1 billion tickets sold in the EU in 2004
Penélope Cruz AFI FEST Tribute
DESTRICTED Not Restricted to Sex Shops in Britain
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