A chronicle of the workings of the Neapolitan underworld, Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah — based on Roberto Saviano's non-fiction book — was the big winner at the 2008 European Film Awards, receiving honors for best European film, best director, best actor (Toni Servillo, also for Il Divo), best screenplay (Garrone, Saviano, Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Massimo Gaudioso), and best cinematography (Marco Onorato).
Gomorrah, which has been garnering widespread praise at film festivals worldwide (it won the Grand Prix at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival), is Italy's submission for the best foreign-language film Academy Award.
Curiously, this year's Palme d'Or winner, The Class, failed to win a single award at the European Film Award ceremony in Copenhagen. Last year's big EFA (and Palme d'Or) winner, Cristian Mungiu's acclaimed Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, failed to get an Academy Award nomination in the best foreign-language film category. That's one of the reasons the Academy has changed its foreign-film nomination rules for 2009.
The 2009 European Film Awards will be held in Essen, Germany.