Polanski's MEDIA funded film swept to victory at the European Film Awards
The European co-production directed by Roman Polanski, “The Ghost Writer”, was awarded with the prizes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Scriptwriter, Production Designer and Composer, at the European Film Awards in Tallin on 4 December 2010. It was one of 18 nominated films at the ceremony supported by the European Union's MEDIA cinema funding programme.
The Franco-German-British co-production The Ghost Writer, based on the political thriller by novelist Robert Harris, tells the story of a journalist hired to 'ghost' the memoirs of a controversial prime minister. Polanski's film has received the prizes for Best Film and Best Director as well as Best Actor for Ewan McGregor, Scriptwriter to Robert Harris and Roman Polanski, Best Production Designer for Albrecht Konrad, and Best Composer for Alexandre Desplat.
Together with The Ghost Writer, four other MEDIA-backed films were also honoured with Sylvie Testud winning Best Actress for her role in Lourdes, Jaco Van Dormaels' Mr. Nobody receiving the People’s Choice Award, Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist taking the prize for Best Animated Film, and Luc Barnier and Marion Monnier sharing the European Editor Award for Carlos.
In total 18 out of 30 films in competition at the awards had received MEDIA support totalling more than 4.5 million Euro. Overall, the MEDIA programme is contributing 755 million Euro in support of Europe's film industry in the period 2007-2013, with a focus on improving distribution and promotion, as well as strengthening competitiveness. Over the past 19 years, MEDIA has supported the development and distribution of thousands of films as well as training, festivals and promotion projects throughout the continent.
More than 2.300 of the members of the European Film Academy voted on this year's prizes which were awarded in a ceremony with the support from the Estonian government and European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011.