The European Film Awards—that distant continent’s annual effort to best the Oscars in the race for “Film Award Statue That Most Resembles A Marital Aid”—were held today, with Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino and performers Michael Caine and Charlotte Rampling all winning big at the Berlin-based bash. Sorrentino’s film Youth swept most of the major awards, winning Best Film and Best Director, and netting a Best Actor award for Caine for his role as a retired composer. Rampling, meanwhile, was honored for her work in Andrew Haigh’s quiet relationship drama 45 Years, winning the award for Best European Actress.
Caine and Rampling weren’t honored merely for their work in 2015, either; both were given lifetime achievement awards for their contributions to cinema at this year’s ceremony, with Rampling receiving the EFA Lifetime Achievement Award, and Caine being given the rare Honorary Award Of The EFA President And Board, by an august body with an apparently kind eye toward the occasional giant shark movie or blubbering butler performance. (Caine’s masterfully restrained turn in Youth this year probably didn’t hurt.)
All told, it was a good year for English-language films at the EFAs; besides Youth and 45 Hours, Best Screenplay went to Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou’s bizarre relationship dystopia The Lobster, while Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse doc Amy took home the award for Best Documentary. Other winners included Best Comedy A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, Sweden’s entry into the upcoming Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, and People’s Choice winner Marshland, from Alberto Rodríguez.