Roughly three weeks before its U.S. release in select cities, Michael Haneke’s drama Amour has swept the four main awards at the 2012 European Film Awards, winning awards for European Film, European Director and European Actor and Actress for Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, and it’s been running the gauntlet of fall film festivals while garnering support among critics. Amour is Austria’s selection for the Foreign Language category at the Oscars and a strong contender to receive nominations in other categories with the Academy often honoring foreign films such as Pedro Almodovar’s Talk to Her and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God outside the Foreign Language category.
Released in North America last year and in Europe earlier in 2012, Steve McQueen’s Shame and the adaptation of John LeCarée’s Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy each received two technical awards, for editing/cinematography and production design/composing respectively.
You can read the full list of winners from the official press release below:
The more than 2,700 members of the European Film Academy – filmmakers from across Europe – have voted for this years European Film Awards. At the awards ceremony in Berlin the following awards were presented:
EUROPEAN FILM 2012:
AMOUR
France / Germany / Austria, 127 min
Written & directed by Michael Haneke
produced by Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka & Michael Katz
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2012:
Michael Haneke for AMOUR
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2012:
Emmanuelle Riva in AMOUR
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2012:
Jean-Louis Trintignant in AMOUR
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2012:
Tobias Lindholm & Thomas Vinterberg for JAGTEN (The Hunt)
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2012:
Sean Bobbitt for SHAME
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2012:
Joe Walker for SHAME
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2012:
Maria Djurkovic for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2012:
Alberto Iglesias for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2012 Prix FIPRESCI:
KAUWBOY by Boudewijn Koole (The Netherlands)
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2012:
HIVER NOMADE (Winter Nomads) by Manuel von Stürler (Switzerland)
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2012:
ALOIS NEBEL by Tomá Luňák (Czech Republic / Germany / Slovakia)
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2012:
SUPERMAN, SPIDERMAN OR BATMAN by Tudor Giurgiu, Romania
EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD 2012 – Prix EURIMAGES:
Helena Danielsson, Sweden
EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2012:
Dame Helen Mirren, UK
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy
THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD 2012:
HASTA LA VISTA (Come As You Are)
directed by da Geoffrey Enthoven