Justine Triet’s ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Triumphs at European Film Awards

Justine Triet’s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall” triumphed at the 36th European Film Awards, taking statuettes for best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the ceremony, which took place Saturday in Berlin. It had been previously announced that it had won the best editing prize as well.

“Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and recently took the screenplay and international feature awards at the Gothams, but was not selected to represent France in the international feature film category of the Oscars. Despite that setback, Triet said the film would still compete for other categories at the Oscars. “Now we are in the race, of course. We continue down that road,” she said at a press conference following the ceremony in Berlin.

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Triet, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Harari, said that they had written it for Sandra Hüller, winner of the best actress award. “I feel she is the perfect actress to embody the complexity of this character,” she said. Triet added that she didn’t want to make Hüller’s character, a novelist accused of the murder of her husband, “a victim … she is a woman who is judged for her independence, her sexuality, her creative prowess, qualities considered suspicious when embodied by a woman.”

Hüller, who was competing against herself, for her spine-chilling role in “The Zone of Interest,” asked the audience to sit in silence for a moment and “imagine peace.”

Prior to the ceremony, Laurent Sénéchal was named as winner of the editing award for “Anatomy of a Fall.”

Mads Mikkelsen won the best actor award for Nikolaj Arcel’s historical drama “The Promised Land,” which was in competition in Venice. Mikkelsen said the director had taken “10 years to call me … please don’t wait another 10 years to call.” The film also took the awards for Rasmus Videbæk’s cinematography and Kicki Ilander’s costume design.

Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex,” about hard-partying teenagers at a Mediterranean holiday resort, took the European Discovery award. The film, which nabbed the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes, features a standout performance by Mia McKenna-Bruce.

Anna Hints won the documentary award for “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” which focuses on a group of women as they gather in a traditional Estonian sauna. Hints delivered a song instead of a speech.

Other awards recipients included Isabel Coixet (European Achievement in World Cinema), Béla Tarr (Honorary Award), British actor Vanessa Redgrave (European Lifetime Achievement Award), Lithuanian producer Uljana Kim (Eurimages International Co-Production Award), and Turkish entrepreneur Güler Sabancı (European Sustainability Award – Prix Film4Climate).

The major category awards were voted on by the 4,600 members of the European Film Academy.

36TH EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINEES AND WINNERS 2023

European Film:
WINNER “Anatomy of a Fall” (Anatomie D’une Chute), directed by Justine Triet, produced by Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion (France)
“Fallen Leaves” (Kuolleet Lehdet), directed by Aki Kaurismäki, produced by Aki Kaurismäki, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff and Reinhard Brundig (Finland, Germany)
“Green Border” (Zielona Granica), directed by Agnieszka Holland, produced by Marcin Wierzchosławski, Fred Bernstein and Agnieszka Holland (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
“Me Captain” (Io Capitano), directed by Matteo Garrone, produced by Matteo Garrone, Paolo Del Brocco, Ardavan Safaee and Joseph Rouschop (Italy, Belgium)
“The Zone of Interest,” directed by Jonathan Glazer, produced by James Wilson and Ewa Puszczyńska (U.K., Poland, U.S.)

European Director:
WINNER Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall”
Aki Kaurismäki for “Fallen Leaves”
Agnieszka Holland for “Green Border”
Matteo Garrone for “Me Captain”
Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest”

European Screenwriter:
WINNER Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for “Anatomy of a Fall”
Aki Kaurismäki for “Fallen Leaves”
Maciej Pisuk, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Agnieszka Holland for “Green Border”
İlker Çatak and Johannes Duncker for “The Teachers’ Lounge”
Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest”

European Actress:
WINNER Sandra Hüller in “Anatomy of a Fall”
Eka Chavleishvili in “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry”
Alma Pöysti in “Fallen Leaves”
Mia Mckenna-Bruce in “How to Have Sex”
Leonie Benesch in “The Teachers’ Lounge”
Sandra Hüller in “The Zone of Interest”

European Actor:
Thomas Schubert in “Afire”
Jussi Vatanen in “Fallen Leaves”
Josh O’Connor in “La Chimera”
WINNER Mads Mikkelsen in “The Promised Land”
Christian Friedel in “The Zone of Interest”

European Documentary:
“Apolonia, Apolonia,” directed by Lea Glob (Denmark, Poland)
“Four Daughters,” directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (France, Tunisia, Germany, Saudi Arabia)
“Motherland,” directed by Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich (Sweden, Ukraine, Norway)
“On the Adamant,” directed by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan)
WINNER “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” directed by Anna Hints (Estonia, France, Iceland)

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci:
“20,000 Species of Bees,” directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain)
WINNER “How to Have Sex,” directed by Molly Manning Walker (U.K., Greece)
“La Palisiada,” directed by Philip Sotnychenko (Ukraine)
“Safe Place,” directed by Juraj Lerotić (Croatia, Slovenia)
“The Quiet Migration,” directed by Malene Choi (Denmark)
“Vincent Must Die,” directed by Stéphan Castang (France, Belgium)

European Animated Feature Film:
“A Greyhound of a Girl,” directed by Enzo d’Alò (Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, U.K., Latvia, Estonia, Germany)
“Chicken for Linda!,” directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (France, Italy)
WINNER “Robot Dreams,” directed by Pablo Berger (Spain, France)
“The Amazing Maurice,” directed by Toby Genkel (Germany, U.K.)
“White Plastic Sky,” directed by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó (Hungary, Slovakia)

European Short Film:
“27,” directed by Flóra Anna Buda (France, Hungary)
“Aqueronte,” directed by Manuel Muñoz Rivas (Spain)
“Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays,” directed by Christian Avilés (Spain)
“Flores Del Otro Patio,” directed by Jorge Cadena (Switzerland, Colombia)
WINNER “Hardly Working,” directed by Total Refusal: Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner and Michael Stumpf (Austria)

European Young Audience Award
“Longing for the World,” Jenna Hasse (Switzerland)
“One in a Million,” Joya Thome (Germany)
WINNER “Scrapper,” Charlotte Regan (U.K.)

European Cinematography
WINNER Rasmus Videbæk for “The Promised Land”

European Editing:
WINNER Laurent Sénéchal for “Anatomy of a Fall”

European Production Design:
WINNER Emita Frigato for “La Chimera”

European Costume Design:
WINNER Kicki Ilander for “The Promised Land”

European Make-Up and Hair:
WINNER Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, David Martí, Montse Ribé for “Society of the Snow”

European Original Score:
WINNER Markus Binder for “Club Zero”

European Sound:
WINNER Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers for “The Zone of Interest”

European Visual Effects:
WINNER Félix Bergés, Laura Pedro for “Society of the Snow”

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