THE FAVOURITE dominated the first awards at this year’s 2019 European Film Awards in the technical categories – winning for CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITING, COSTUME DESIGN and HAIR & MAKE-UP. Other winners include PAIN AND GLORY for PRODUCTION DESIGN; TWELVE-YEAR NIGHT for SOUND and ABOUT ENDLESSNESS for VISUAL EFFECTS

A special eight-member jury convened in Berlin and, based on the EFA Feature Film Selection, decided on the winners in the categories cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, hair & make-up, original score, sound and visual effects.

The 32nd European Film Awards will take place on December 7 in Berlin.

EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHY 2019:
Robbie Ryan for THE FAVOURITE

The innovative and creative visuals of THE FAVOURITE are certainly the work of an exceptional cinematographer but they also reveal a very intimate collaboration with the director. The filmmakers were committed to stay as far away from the photographic conventions of a period drama as they could. The use of natural light and candlelight is reminiscent of Kubrick’s masterpiece BARRY LYNDON, while the use of extreme wide-angle lenses takes this approach into a completely new direction. It is both inspiring and encouraging to see how strong imagery and bold cinematographic choices did not take away from the drama, but reinforced it.

EUROPEAN EDITING 2019:
Yorgos Mavropsaridis for THE FAVOURITE

With great talent, Yorgos Mavropsaridis has succeeded in editing THE FAVOURITE in a clever, new and inventive way, thus giving the film an easy and natural flow, playful like a game of checkers.

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGN 2019:
Antxon Gómez for PAIN AND GLORY

With great audacity, Antxon Gómez constructs the universe of Almodóvar’s characters, as reflected in his choices of colour and design styles. Eclectic and bold but always well balanced. With his art, the production designer leads us into the subtext, be it the troubled interior of the main character or the dream-like memoirs of his childhood.

EUROPEAN COSTUME DESIGN 2019:
Sandy Powell for THE FAVOURITE

Sandy Powell’s costumes in THE FAVOURITE give all nods needed to a period film but one that ultimately and refreshingly feels like a punk rock opera. Whilst we bounce off the period detail, there is an underlying contemporary tempo, which makes us believe that we are dancing in the mosh pit with Queen Anne and her courtiers.

EUROPEAN HAIR & MAKE-UP 2019:
Nadia Stacey for THE FAVOURITE

Nadia Stacey skilfully combines the ladies’ no make-up look with their three-quarter hairpieces which makes them appear so much more natural compared to the extreme wigs and garish make-up of the male characters – as if they had done it themselves. Even the “badger” look of Queen Anne is at the same time hilariously funny but also carries with it a feeling of great sadness.

EUROPEAN ORIGINAL SCORE 2019:
John Gürtler for SYSTEM CRASHER

The music in SYSTEM CRASHER is modern, virtuosic, impulsive and surprising. John Gürtler has transformed the unspeakable into music. Where words are no longer possible, his film music manages to function as a non-verbal language, reflecting the inside of the protagonist and carrying the viewer along with it.

EUROPEAN SOUND 2019:
Eduardo Esquide, Nacho Royo-Villanova & Laurent Chassaigne for A TWELVE-YEAR NIGHT

The major part of the sound in this film is not about what we see. It’s about what we cannot see when we are held captive in a small and dark cell. In a vivid and tactile way, it lets the audience experience how it is to be a prisoner. The constant off-screen sounds expand the cinematography and give us a clear understanding of the different locations and of how these affect the prisoner’s psyche as the years go on.

EUROPEAN VISUAL EFFECTS 2019:
Martin Ziebell, Sebastian Kaltmeyer, Néha Hirve, Jesper Brodersen & Torgeir Busch for ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

Instead of hiding in the background, the visual effects serve this film amplifying the required effects and thereby creating the special atmosphere required for the director’s vision. Owing to this brave decision by Martin Ziebell and Sebastian Kaltmeyer, the VFX get more space, thus not only supporting the message and visual identity of the film, but raising it to a much higher artistic level.