The European Film Awards: The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino wins big

But the ceremony fails again to capture the imagination of the British public

Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) is the story of an ageing writer (Toni Servillo) who looks back on his youth in Rome

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty was the big winner at the European Film Awards, winning four prizes, Best Film, Best Actor for Toni Servillo, Best European Director for Sorrentino and Best Editor for Cristiano Travaglioli.

It’s the 26th occasion that the European Film Awards have been handed out, yet they have failed to capture the imagination of the British public. The obvious reason for this is that by their very nature they exclude popular American films, most notably those being touted as the major awards contenders of the year.

There is no Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davies, 12 Years a Slave or The Wolf of Wall Street vying for the big prizes. It’s a policy decision that ensures that the European Film Awards often slip under the radar. BAFTA long ago gave up on only rewarding British films for fear of becoming irrelevant.

The European Film Academy should be commended for refusing to bow down to the Hollywood marketing machine. The result is a ceremony that showcases European films that have sometimes slipped under the radar or have failed to receive a release in the UK. Thus the European Film Awards seem irrelevant, even though they are not. Nonetheless, it’s no surprise that there is little interest in the awards ceremony in the UK, given that many of the films nominated as being the best Europe may never get a release in the UK, and others have been and gone with little fanfare.

Out of the six films nominated for Best European Film of 2013, only two have made a mark at the UK box-office, Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. Surprisingly, the film with the most EFA nominations, was Flemish music film The Broken Circle Breakdown. The film received a minor release in the UK recently before being put out on DVD.

It split UK critics, The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab slammed it as "weak and manipulative," while Mark Kermode in The Observer called it "Powerful haunting tale of love, death and bluegrass.” Likewise, Spanish silent film Biancanieves came and went in the blink of an eye. While British audiences have yet to be given an opportunity to see Italian drama The Best Offer starring Geoffrey Rush, or the most surprising film on the list, German comedy Oh Boy.

Oh Boy won the European Discovery Award. That seemed about right for a black and white film that has echoes of early Woody Allen and Richard Linklater. As with both these American directors, the first film of Jan Ole Gerster’s has autobiographical elements. It’s a Berlin hipster story, detailing 24 hours in the life of an educated slacker who has dropped out of university and can’t get a decent cup of coffee. There are many wry observations about life in Berlin and the phenomenon of educated slackers. This was Gerster’s film school thesis film, which he said he made because his professors were about to fail him for not attending class.

Of the five films nominated in the Discovery category only Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl has been released in British cinemas to date. Gabriela Pichler’s excellent Swedish immigration tale Eat Sleep Die, Valeria Golina’s Italian drug trafficking drama Miele and Neus Ballus’ Spanish docu-drama The Plague have only been shown at the London Film Festival.

The paucity of opportunity to see top quality European cinema helps explains the lack of British public interest in the awards. It’s a Catch 22 situation. It’s hard to criticise British distributors for not picking up quality European fare given the number of films already being released in our cinemas each week, and the fact that most of these films then struggle to find an audience. Audiences can’t take the blame either given that it’s often an effort to see just one film a week, and the cost of admission means that they are likely to choose the film being given the most exposure and that their friends are talking about, and often this is the one that’s being advertised on the side of buses.

The European Film Awards clearly seem to serve a purpose. It draws attention to European Film, even if it’s not much or if it just highlights that the current distribution mechanism in the UK is failing to give European cinema a chance. How are audiences meant to discover the next Pedro Almodovar or Catherine Deneuve (both given achievement awards here) when the only European films being given sufficient exposure are those made by recognised directors, whose films have usually played in competition in Cannes?

It’s worth noting this major effort to showcase European cinema by the European Film Academy, as it’s all too easy to criticise the awards and the ceremony itself. Of course, the EFA is undermined when the awarding of the top prize to The Great Beauty ends up being a PR disaster. Director Paolo Sorrentino is currently on the jury at the Marrakech Film Festival, and opted to stay for the closing ceremony in North Africa, giving out awards rather than picking up some for his own film. The German presenter Anke Engelke struggles to get laughs in English. But the evening’s nadir was the musical interlude provided by Dutch actress Carice van Houten, a better actress than she is a singer.

European Film Awards: List of Winners in Full

European Comedy– Love is all you Need, Denmark

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci, Oh Boy, Germany

European Documentary– The Act of Killing, Denmark, Norway/ UK

European Animated Feature Film – The Congress, Israel/ Germany/ Poland / Luxembourg / France / Belgium

European Short Film – Death of a Shadow, Belgium/ France

European Director– Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty), Italy, France

European Actress – Veerle Baetens (The Broken Circle Breakdown), Belgium

European Actor– Toni Servillo, (The Great Beauty), Italy / France

European Screenwriter– François Ozon, In the House, France

European Cinematographer– Asaf Sudry, Fill the Void, Israel