The Harpa Centre in Reykjavík is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and The Icelandic Opera. An imposing piece of architecture with award-winning acoustics, it has featured in episodes of Netflix’s Sense8 and Black Mirror, hosted the World Yo-Yo Contest in 2017, and is a three-minute stroll from the Icelandic Phallological Museum. (Yes, that houses what you think it does.)
The Harpa proved a perfect venue for the 35th European Film Awards, a grand, continental celebration, returning in some style after last year’s mostly virtual, socially distanced, Berlin-based event.
“It’s like the Oscars,” explained Icelandic actor, screenwriter, politician, and co-host Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir during the shindig’s opening gambit. “But all the films are foreign.”
Despite the best efforts of the European Film Academy, the presence of global stars Dali Benssalah, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Nina Hoss, and live streams and broadcasts across 29 countries, European audiences have stubbornly refused to embrace the EFAs as the movieverse’s answer to the Eurovision.
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This year’s ceremony saw the entire auditorium get to their feet and bust some moves to the electro-beats of Icelandic noiseniks, GusGus. An excellent sequence of parody films featured a fake British kitchen sink retelling of Macbeth titled Oi Wanker, solely comprised of those two words.
“I’m just excited to get drunk later,” announced award-presenter Jedet on the giddy pre-show red carpet; good as her word, the LGBTQI icon later fluffed her lines: “I’m a little bit drunk; it’s cold here.”
She was one of many presenters who visibly struggled to open envelopes that were apparently over-glued.
Happily, after some tussle and tearing on Jedet’s part, the deserving recipient of the FIPRESCI Discovery Prize, Laura Samani, received her statuette for the marvellous medieval drama, Small Body.
“There’s no such thing as a too-long speech,” comedian and co-host Hugleikur Dagsson jokingly instructed the nominees. “Who needs an after-party?”
If only someone thought to tell Ursula von der Leyen, accepting the bizarrely conceived European sustainability award – Prix Connect4climate in a pre-recorded message on behalf of the European Commission. Meanwhile, redefining the phrase “All Shall Have Prizes”, the Euroimage co-production award was given not to one producer but to all producers from Ukraine.
Elsewhere, there were some genuinely great innovations.
The brilliant Kate McCullough – looking fabulous in a long skirt and dinner jacket – accepted an excellence award in cinematography for her work on The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin).
She arrived on stage as part of a ceremony-shortening constellation of simultaneous winners in technical categories, including production design and costume design (those prizes went, respectively, to Jim Clay and Charlotte Walter for Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast).
Each of the nominees for best European director was movingly introduced in “Dear John” style letters from their actors, including Eden Dambrine, the young star of Lukas Dhont’s Close, now visibly older than he appears in the grand prix-winning film, and sporting braces and a hint of a moustache.
One category was recounted through the medium of interpretive dance; the disabled activists who front the long-running Icelandic TV series Through Our Eyes (Með okkar augum) talked us through the shortlist for best European film.
The European comedy award was summarised by informal banter between basketball players.
[ Triangle of Sadness film review: The rich are revoltingOpens in new window ]
The filmmakers of The Good Boss, the eventual winner of the comedy category, were not entirely amused. “There’s been a mistake; The Good Boss is a drama,” said perplexed producer, Jaume Roures.
A merry Zlatko Burić recalled his years in Yugoslavian theatre as the veteran Triangle of Sadness star to beat Paul Mescal’s Aftersun performance for the best actor award.
Other Irish nominees included Mark Cousins whose documentary The March of Time, a compelling, urgent portrait of the rise of Mussolini, lost out to Mariupolis 2. That award was accepted by Teja Kvedaraviciute, the daughter of late director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who received a standing ovation.
Kenneth Branagh, shortlisted for Belfast’s screenplay, was pipped at the post by Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness.
The Belfast-born actor and filmmaker was not alone in defeat. Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner was the pony to beat in Reykjavík. Many superb contenders, including Holy Spider, Godland, and Saint-Omer, went home empty-handed.
The Swedish auteur’s riotous English-language comedy swept the boards with wins in four major categories, best screenplay, best actor, best director, and best film.
“Triangle of Sadness? I’ve seen it twice!” said one of the Through Our Eyes presenters, excitedly, before Östlund and his team made their way to the podium for a final bow.
35th European Film Awards 2022 nominees and winners
European film award
- Alcarràs
- Close
- Corsage
- Holy Spider
- Triangle of Sadness – Winner
European documentary award
- A House Made of Splinters
- Girl Gang
- Mariupolis 2 – Winner
- The Balcony Movie
- The March on Rome
European director award
- Lukas Dhont for Close
- Marie Kreutzer for Corsage
- Jerzy Skolimowski for EO
- Ali Abbasi for Holy Spider
- Alice Diop for Saint Omer
- Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness – Winner
European actress award
- Vicky Krieps in Corsage – Winner
- Zar Amir Ebrahimi in Holy Spider
- Léa Seydoux in One Fine Morning
- Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers
- Meltem Kaptan in Rabiye Kurnaz Vs George W Bush
European actor award
- Paul Mescal in Aftersun
- Eden Dambrine in Close
- Elliott Crosset Hove in Godland
- Pierfrancesco Favino in Nostalgia
- Zlatko Burić in Triangle of Sadness – Winner
European screenwriter award
- Carla Simón & Arnau Vilaró for Alcarràs
- Kenneth Branagh for Belfast
- Lukas Dhont & Angelo Tijssens for “Close
- Ali Abbasi & Afshin Kamran Bahrami for Holy Spider
- Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness – Winner
European FIPRESCI discovery award
- 107 Mothers
- Love According to Dalva
- Other People
- Pamfir
- Small Body – Winner
- Sonne
European comedy award
- Cop Secret
- The Divide
- The Good Boss – Winner
European animated feature film award
- Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be
- My Love Affair With Marriage
- My Neighbors’ Neighbors
- No Dogs or Italians Allowed – Winner
- Oink
European short film award
- Granny’s Sexual Life – Winner
- Ice Merchants
- Love, Dad
- Techno, Mama
- Will My Parents Come to See Me
Excellence awards
European cinematography award
Winner: Kate McCullough for The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin)
European editing award
Winner: Özcan Vardar & Eytan İpeker for Burning Days
European make-up and hair award
Winner: Heike Merker for All Quiet On The Western Front
European original score award
Winner: Paweł Mykietyn for EO
European sound award
Winner: Simone Paolo Olivero, Marco Saitta, Ansgar Frerich & Florian Holzner for The Hole
European visual effects award
Winner: Frank Petzold For All Quiet On The Western Front
European lifetime achievement award
Winner: Margarethe von Trotta
European achievement in world cinema award
Winner: Elia Suleiman
European innovative storytelling award
Winner: Marco Bellocchio
European co-production award (Prix Eurimages)
Winner: Ukraine
European university film award
Winner: EO
Young audience award
Winner: Animal
