13/11/2024 - Coralie Fargeat’s and Magnus von Horn’s films have grabbed two of the Excellence Awards each

The European Film Academy has unveiled the eight winners of the European Film Awards’ Excellence Awards, the prizes honouring the different arts and crafts in filmmaking.

Standing out among this year’s winners is Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], undoubtedly the year’s sensation in festivals and theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. The film adds two European Film Awards to its cabinet, which already includes the Cannes Best Screenplay award. The film has received the award in the European Cinematography category for Benjamin Kračun’s work, which according to the jury “playfully explores the main character’s physical and psychological demise with highly stylised lens distortions and manipulations” and in the European Visual Effects for the work of Bryan Jones, Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky, Chervin Shafaghi and Guillaume Le Gouez, which “combines organic SFX and VFX in a surprising way”, in the jury’s words.

Magnus von Horn’s dark period drama The Girl With The Needle [+see also:
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interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile] has also received two awards, namely the European Production Design and European Original Score awards. The former, bestowed upon Jagna Dobesz, acknowledges “an excellent, interesting, visually strong, and striking production design, through skilfully designed interiors, along with carefully chosen exteriors”, and the latter, handed to Frederikke Hoffmeier, shines a light on a score “minimalistic so as not to steal the show but still to be remembered and [which] conveys the cruelty of the protagonist's experience”, according to the jury’s statement.

Four other films have been graced with one award each. One of the favourites in the rest of the categories (read about the nominations here), Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez [+see also:
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film profile] received the award in the European Editing category for Juliette Welfling’s work, which the jury thinks “strikes us with its incredible fluidity and elegance”. Also a nominee in the main categories, Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story [+see also:
film review
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interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] has excelled in the European Sound category with the work of Marc-Olivier Brullé, Pierre Bariaud, Charlotte Butrak, Samuel Aïchoun and Rodrigo Diaz, described by the jury as “a perfectly modulated masterpiece of sonic realism”. Lastly, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’s Bath [+see also:
film review
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interview: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
film profile] triumphed in the European Costume Design category thanks to Tanja Hausner’s work, and Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When The Light Breaks [+see also:
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interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] stood out in the European Make-Up & Hair category thanks to Evalotte Oosterop.

The victors will collect their statuettes at the ceremony on 7 December in Lucerne, alongside the winners in the remaining categories. Representing their respective crafts, the members of the jury for the Excellence Awards were composer Dascha Dauenhauer (Germany), production designer Miljen Kreka Kljakovic (Serbia), make-up artist Barbara Kreuzer (Germany), costume designer Katarzyna Lewinska (Poland), VFX supervisor Iñaki Madariaga (Spain), cinematographer Kate McCullough (Ireland), editor Laurent Sénéchal (France) and sound designer Joakim Sundström (Sweden).

The list of awards:

European Cinematography
Benjamin Kračun - The Substance [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] (UK/USA/France)

European Editing
Juliette Welfling - Emilia Pérez [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (France)

European Production Design
Jagna Dobesz - The Girl With The Needle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile] (Denmark/Poland/Sweden)

European Costume Design
Tanja Hausner - The Devil’s Bath [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
film profile] (Austria/Germany)

European Make-Up & Hair
Evalotte Oosterop - When The Light Breaks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] (Iceland/Netherlands/Croatia/France)

European Original Score
Frederikke Hoffmeier - The Girl With The Needle

European Sound
Marc-Olivier Brullé, Pierre Bariaud, Charlotte Butrak, Samuel Aïchoun & Rodrigo Diaz - Souleymane’s Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] (France)

European Visual Effects
Bryan Jones, Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky, Chervin Shafaghi & Guillaume Le Gouez - The Substance