>Roll Out The Red Carpet for the European Film Awards

Wim Wenders at 2008 European Film Awards Ceremony

I’m sure you’ve all been on pins and needles waiting to hear who will win the European Film Awards for 2010 and well, today’s the day! So put on your tiaras and your tuxedos and wait with me for the results. This year it’s being held in Tallinn, Estonia so pack your snow boots. You can have Roman Polanski’s seat – he’s decided that travel’s still a little unwise for him. But he’s nominated for “Ghost Writer“, so if he wins, pick up his award and make a nice speech; OK?

For a person who likes movies so much I sure hate award shows – I can barely watch the Academy Awards anymore. I mean, really. American Filmmakers act as though they’ve cured cancer or something the way they carry on at those things. And what’s the deal with giving each other awards, anyway? If you really think about it, it’s embarrassing watching them cry and congratulate each other…OK – I’ll shut up about that (for now).

The European Film Academy (EFA) first handed out awards in November 1988. EFA was actually founded in 1989 as the European Cinema Society by its first president Ingmar Bergman and 40 filmmakers to advocate the European film industry. Wim Wenders was elected as first chairman of the association which two years later was renamed European Film Academy. In 1996, he followed Ingmar Bergman as president of the EFA.

The European Film Academy (EFA) now unites more than 2,300 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture, which is a little odd, because some of the films nominated this year aren’t exactly European. Lebanon, for example, is an Israeli movie backed by Germany and France, and El secreto de Sus Ojos is an Argentinian movie – they couldn’t keep it to actual European movies? I understand the international nature of today’s film industry, but if the goal is to promote Europeans I think they should have chosen Europeans. But I’ll shut up about that (for now).

Italians won’t get anything out of this one – Paolo Virzi’s nominated for “La Prima Cosa Bella” (The First Beautiful Thing), and that one won’t do it.

Also nominated without a chance in hell is Elio Germano for “La Nostra Vita” (Our Life), and to be fair, I haven’t seen it, but it just doesn’t look like a winner. I’ll let you know if anything unexpected happens, but if that doesn’t occur, let’s never speak of this again.

Here’s a mildly interesting video of European filmmakers talking about the awards. I’ll see you in Estonia – you buy the first round of Viru.