European Film Awards: An Cailín Ciúin picks up award as Triangle of Sadness sweeps the board

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.

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).

Kate McCullough (6th from L) at the European Film Awards ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland. Photograph: Sophia Groves/Getty Images

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 revolting ]

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.

[ Belfast review: Already an Oscars favourite, Kenneth Branagh’s film is irresistible ]

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.

latko Burić, Erik Hemmendorff, Ruben Östlund, Philippe Bober, Vicki Berlin and a guest pose with the awards for Triangle of Sadness' during European Film Awards. Photograph: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

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