Lars von Trier's apocalyptic drama “Melancholia” walked away with the top award, European Film 2011, at the 24th European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday.
The flm also won for Best Cinematographer (Manuel Alberto Claro) and Production Designer (Jette Lehmann). It topped a field of nominees that included the 2010 Oscar Best Picture winner, "The King's Speech," which was released in 2011 in Europe.
That latter film's star, Oscar-winner Colin Firth, did win the award for Best European Actor. Tilda Swinton, who lost the Cannes Film Festival best actress award to "Melancholia" star Kirsten Dunst, won for Best European Actress for her role in “We Need to Talk About Kevin."
“King’s Speech” also won Best Editor and the People’s Choice Award. Danish director Susanne Bier, who was seemingly slammed by von Trier at the same inflammatory Cannes press conference that caused him to be named persona non grata for his jokes about Nazis, beat von Trier to win Best Director for “In a Better World.”
"The Artist," considered by many a top candidate for this year's Best Picture Oscar, won a single award, Best Composer, for Ludovic Bource.
Other winners who figure in this year's Oscar race included Wim Wender's dance documentary "Pina," which is shortlisted in the Oscar doc category and is Germany's entry in the foreign-language race; and the animated film "Chico & Rita," which is in the running in the Oscar animated-feature category.
The awards were voted on by more than 2,500 members of the European Film Academy.
"Melancholia" had entered the ceremony with eight nominations, twice as many as any other film.
Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" won the award last year; previous winners included Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The Lives of Others" and Pedro Almovodar's "Tallk to Her."
The full list of winners:
EUROPEAN FILM 2011: "Melancholia," Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Lars von Trier
PRODUCED BY: Meta Louise Foldager & Louise Vesth
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2011: Susanne Bier for "Haevnen" ("In a Better World")
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2011: Tilda Swinton in "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2011: Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2011: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for "Le Gamin au Velo" ("The Kid with a Bike")
CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2011: Manuel Alberto Claro for "Melancholia"
EUROPEAN EDITOR 2011: Tariq Anwar for "The King's Speech"
EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2011: Jette Lehmann for "Melancholia"
EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2011: Ludovic Bource for "The Artist"
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2011: "Adem" ("Oxygen") by Hans Van Nuffel, Belgium/theNetherlands
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2011 – Pix ARTE: "Pina," by Wim Wenders, Germany
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2011: "Chico & Rita" by Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal & Fernando Trueba
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2011: "The Wholly Family" by Terry Gilliam, Italy
EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD 2011 – Prix EURIMAGES: Mariela Besuievsky, Spain
EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2011: Mads Mikkelsen, Denmark
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Stephen Frears, UK
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SPECIAL HONORARY AWARD: Michel Piccoli, France
THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD 2011: "The King's Speech" by Tom Hooper, UK
