Toni Erdmann triumphs at EFAs

Maren Ade first female director in award's history to take top prize.

by Amber Wilkinson

Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller both won acting prizes for Toni Erdmann.
Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller both won acting prizes for Toni Erdmann.
Maren Ade became the first female director to win the top prize at the European Film Awards' 29 year history as her offbeat comedy Toni Erdmann swept away the competition.

The film, which tells the tale of a father's madcap attempts to reconnect with his daughter on a visit, was named best film as well as picking up the directing and writing awards for Ade, while its stars Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek were named best actress and actor.

The almost-as-offbeat A Man Called Ove - a comedy about a widower's failed attempts to kill himself - was named best European comedy, while the discovery prize went to Hannes Holm's boxing drama The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki.

Gianfranco Rosi's Fire At Sea was named best documentary, while the animation award went to My Life As A Zucchini.

In a call for unity that was echoed by several filmmakers across the night, Ade said: “I feel great luxury to make films at a time when we’re going through such crisis but I believe films can cross borders and easily transform the unfamiliar into empathy."

Pierce Brosnan, who won an honorary award said: “Faith, hope, courage, truth. In these turbulent times, more than ever we must come together as artists and filmmakers to try to make sense of what’s happening in our countries, nations.

“To all you young men and women out there … keep good strength, keep good faith, whatever the politics of your nation is, be truthful to yourself."

The full list of nominees and winners is below:

BEST EUROPEAN FILM

  • Elle, (Paul Verhoeven; France, Germany)
  • I, Daniel Blake, (Ken Loach; UK, France)
  • Julieta, (Pedro Almodóvar; Spain)
  • Room, (Lenny Abrahamson; Ireland, Canada)
  • WINNER: Toni Erdmann, (Maren Ade; Germany, Austria)

BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR

BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR

BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS

  • Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, (Like Crazy)
  • Trine Dyrholm, (The Commune)
  • WINNER: Sandra Hüller, (Toni Erdmann)
  • Isabelle Huppert, (Elle)
  • Emma Suárez & Adriana Ugarte, (Julieta)

BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER

BEST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY

  • 21 X New York, (Piotr Stasik; Poland)
  • A Family Affair, (Tom Fassaert; the Netherlands, Belgium)
  • WINNER: Fire At Sea, (Gianfranco Rosi; Italy, France)
  • Mr Gaga, (Tomer Heymann; Israel, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands)
  • S is for Stanley – 30 Years At The Wheel For Stanley Kubrick, (Alex Infascelli; Italy)
  • The Land Of The Enlightened, (Pieter-Jan De Pue; Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands)

BEST EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE

  • WINNER: My Life As A Zucchini, (Claude Barras, France, Switzerland)
  • Psiconautas, The Forgotten Children, (Pedro Rivero, Alberto Vázquez, Spain)
  • The Red Turtle (Michael Dudok de Wit, Japan, France, Belgium)

BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY

  • WINNER: A Man Called Ove, (Hannes Holm; Sweden, Norway)
  • Look Who’s Back (David Wnendt; Germany)
  • One Man And His Cow, (Mohamed Hamidi; France)

FIPRESCI PRIZE – BEST EUROPEAN DISCOVERY

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY FILM AWARD

BEST EUROPEAN SHORT

  • 90 Degrees North (Detsky Graffam; Germany)
  • WINNER: 9 Days – From My Window In Aleppo (Thomas Vroege, Floor van der Meulen, Issa Touma; Netherlands, Syria)
  • Amalimbo (Juan Pablo Libossart; Sweden, Estonia)
  • A Man Returned (Mahdi Fleifel; Netherlands, Denmark, Lebanon, UK)
  • Edmond (Nina Gantz; UK)
  • Home (Daniel Mulloy; Kosovo, UK)
  • I’m Not From Here (Giedrē Žickytē, Maite Alberdi; Lithuania, Denmark, Chile)
  • In The Distance (Florian Grolig; Germany)
  • Limbo (Konstantina Kotzamani; Greece, France)
  • Shooting Star (Lyubo Yonchev; Italy, Bulgaria)
  • Small Talk (Even Hafnor, Lisa Brooke Hansen; Norway)
  • The Fullness Of Time (Romance) (Manon Coubia; France, Belgium)
  • The Goodbye (Clara Roquet; Spain)
  • The Wall (Samuel Lampaert; Belgium)
  • We All Love The Sea Shore (Keina Espiñeir; Spain)

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA

  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Maren Ade and Sandra Hüller talk about Toni Erdmann

    Share this with others on...
    News

    Cousins discovers a kindred spirit Filmmaker on his Barns-Graham art doc in Karlovy Vary

    Creating a spirited comedy Tomás Gómez Bustillo on faith, competitive piety and humour in Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint

    Fragile yet beautiful Usman Riaz on creating animated magic in The Glassworker

    Action woman Kelsey Egan on stars, stunts, world building and the 11 year journey of making The Fix

    Star fixer who can 'make or break' a film Casting agent Francine Maisler reveals her secrets - from The Bikeriders to Succession

    Why Soderbergh became hooked by Jaws Karlovy Vary guest reflects on Spielberg, Kafka and 'retirement'

    More news and features

    We're bringing you news, reviews and interviews from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.



    We're looking forward to the Fantasia International Film Festival.



    We've recently covered Frameline48, Docs Ireland, Sheffield DocFest, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Muslim International Film Festival, Inside Out, Cannes, Fantaspoa, Queer East, Visions du Réel and New Directors/New Films.



    Read our full for more.


    Visit our festivals section.

    Interact

    More competitions coming soon.


    DJDT

    Versions

    Time

    Settings from settings.local

    Headers

    Request

    SQL queries from 1 connection

    Templates (11 rendered)

    Cache calls from 2 backends

    Signals