The European film industry has been impacted for two years by the pandemic, but it has been able to resist and organize itself thanks to its production methods and its great diversity.
ADVERTISEMENTThe European film industry has been impacted for two years by the pandemic, but it has been able to resist and organize itself thanks to its production methods and its great diversity. British, Danish, Bosnian, French and Romanian films have won numerous international prizes and shone on big and smaller screens.
Danish director Thomas Vinterberg was the big winner of the 2020 European Film Awards with Another Round - and it also won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film in early 2021, bringing in a top honour for European cinema.
February’s Berlinale was held in hybrid conditions caused by covid, with a jury of Golden Bear award-winning European directors.
Romanian Radu Jude got the top prize for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn - a somewhat crazy pandemic era comedy... which was a co-production bringing together four European countries.
Europe Creative was present in Cannes in July, reminding the industry of the importance of the Commission's support for European co-productions.
"It was really important for Creative Europe Media to be present after this pandemic year and as well because we are launching a new program with a new budget and significant increases for 2021-2027," said Europe Creative Media representative Margaux Lacoste.
Several Europe backed films took awards: Titanium, the Palme d'Or, and Compartment N° 6, the jury’s Grand Prix winner, which was a co-production between 3 European countries and Russia.
"This is the first minor co-production from Russia,” said Compartment N° 6 director Juho Kuosmanen. “So we had the film from the beginning till the end in Russia between St. Petersburg and Murmansk."
And the European Film Academy, made up of 4200 European film professionals, honoured European co-productions such as Quo Vadis, Aida, The Father, or Flee at their annual ceremony held this year in Berlin.
"In Europe of course, we have a very strong system when it comes to public funding, that has not disappeared all of a sudden,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. “We do see that since a couple of years, of course, new players are really mixing the process of filmmaking financially but also when it comes to content and choosing the story. That process has only been accelerated in the past two years by the pandemic."
The new players are of course the platforms, which produce series and feature films by great European directors such as Paolo Sorrentino. His latest film, The Hand of God, is watchable on the small screen this winter.