Lars von Trier’s Melancholia dominated the 2011 European Film Awards last night.
His end-of-the-world tale won three prizes including Best Film at the ceremony in Berlin. The controversial Danish filmmaker lost out on the Best Director prize which went to his protégé Susanne Bier for In a Better World, the film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film last February.
Colin Firth was once more among the winners when he scooped the Best Actor gong for The King's Speech and Tilda Swinton won Best Actress for her mesmerising portrayal of a distraught mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Kirsten Dunst, star of Melancholia, won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her role in the film but von Trier was expelled from the festival after making some controversial remarks about Adolf Hitler.
The winners in full were:
European Film of 2011:
Melancholia
European Director:
Susanne Bier, Hævnen (In a Better World)
European Actress:
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
European Actor:
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
European Screenwriter:
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with a Bike)
European Cinematographer:
Manuel Alberto Claro, Melancholia
European Editor:
Tariq Anwar, The King’s Speech
European Production Designer:
Jette Lehmann, Melancholia
European Composer:
Ludovic Bource, The Artist
European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award:
Stephen Frears
People’s Choice Award:
The King’s Speech
