Last weekend’s 2007 European Film Awards ceremony honored a host of French co-productions.
A co-production with the UK, The Queen, picked up the Best Actress award for Helen Mirren as well as the award for Best European Composer for Alexandre Desplat.
Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The Band's Visit), a co-production with Israel, won two prizes: Sasson Gabai was voted Best Actor and the film’s director Eran Kolirin received this year’s European Discovery Award. The awards for Artistic Excellence and Best Cinematography went to Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which was co-produced with Germany.
The FIPRESCI jury of international critics presented its award to Private Fears in Public Places by Alain Resnais, while Jean-Luc Godard and Manoel de Oliveira were honored with special prizes for their outstanding achievement in the movie industry.
Unifrance President Margaret Menegoz, a producer with Les Films du Losange, was also presented with the newly created Eurimages Prize, which aims to "highlight the importance of co-production within the European cinematographic industry."
The 2007 awards list reflects the spirit behind this new prize, as awards given to three French co-productions can be seen to offer indirect support to the French film financing system, which plays a leadership role in co-productions at this time.
