Film THE WHITE RIBBON the Best According to the European Film Academy

On Saturday evening (December 12) European Film Academy awards were given in the German town Bochum. The award for the Best European Film in year 2009 went to THE WHITE RIBBON, by the screenwriter and director Michael Haneke. Also, this film won the awards in categories Best Director and Best Screenwriter.

Film THE WHITE RIBBON was screened at the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival within the In Focus Programme. According to the selector, Elma Tataragic’s words, with this film which previously won the Golden Palm in the Cannes, “Michael Haneke presents the peak of European filmmaking… Shot in sober black and white, with no musical score and told in a stately and deliberate pace, THE WHITE RIBBON tells the story of the birth of Nazism in Europe with fascinating austere cruelty”.

Carlo Di Palma Award went to the films ANTICHRIST (screened at the previous SFF within the Panorama Programme) and Slumdog Millionaire.

Alberto Iglesias was proclaimed the Best Composer for the year 2009 for music in the film BROKEN EMBRACES by Pedro Almodovar (screened within the Open Air Programme at the 15th SFF).

The Best Short Film is the Polish film POSTE RESTANTE, directed by Marcel Lozinski. This is the award which the European Film Academy gives in cooperation with Sarajevo Film Festival and twelve other reputable European film festivals.