Matthijs Wouter Knol Talks Ambitions To Make European Film Awards Bigger Part Of Awards Season Conversation
09.12.2023 - 13:33
/ deadline.com
Cinema professionals from across Europe are gathering in Berlin this weekend for the ceremony of the 36th European Film Awards on Saturday evening.
This younger cousin of Hollywood’s near hundred-year-old Academy Awards is overseen by the Berlin-based European Film Academy.
The body’s 4,600 members – hailing from “geographical Europe” as well as Israel, Palestine and Russia, – vote on an official Academy Selection made up of around 40 films selected by the European Academy Board and a group of experts.
Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves and UK director Jonathan Glazer The Zone Of Interest top the nominations this year, followed by Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner and Poland’s Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, which won the Venice Special Jury Prize.
Awards for the craft categories were decided by an expert jury and announced ahead of tonight’s ceremony.
The European Film Academy was launched in 1989 by a group of 40 European filmmakers – which included Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Claude Chabrol and Wim Wenders – to advance the interests of the region’s cinema.
Saturday’s awards ceremony is just one pole of its activities, which also include the Month of European Film, which dovetails with the awards, and the new European Film Club, aimed at fostering a cinema culture among the 12 to 19-year-old demographic.
Deadline sat down with European Film Academy CEO and director Matthijs Wouter Knol to discuss the body’s expanding remit and plans for the future.
DEADLINE: Where do the European Film Awards currently sit in the awards season constellation and what are your ambitions for the prizes and its ceremony in the future?
MATTHIJS WOUTER KNOL: I’d like to make them more relevant and well