MetFilm School Partners with the 2023 European Film Awards
By Elise Czyzowska
14 December 2023
MetFilm School were proud to partner with the European Film Academy for their 36th Awards Ceremony last Saturday, 9th December. Through this partnership, 17 students and graduates across MetFilm School Berlin BA & MA Degrees came together to collaborate on Audience Clips for five of the key award categories across the evening.
Robert Lehniger (Principal, MetFilm School Berlin), acted as Stage Director for the Awards this year, bringing together the different creative teams involved in the ceremony all the way from moderation and script development, to music and visual design. Reflecting on this partnership, Robert shared:
I was really impressed by the creativity and team spirit with which our students took on this interesting task. There were many positive comments on their contributions from Academy members, presenters, nominees, and winners that I spoke to both during and after event!
I was very touched and feel honoured to have been able to accompany our students and graduates on this journey, and to see both them and our School become even more visible within the European film community.
The European Film Awards
Jointly presented by the European Film Academy and the European Film Academy Productions, the European Film Awards honour the greatest achievements in European cinema. Covering 24 categories, the ceremony highlighted some of the brightest talents of the last year in cinema.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall took home six awards, including Best European Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, and the European University Film Award, which is both presented and voted for by European university students.
Other winners from the evening include Johnnie Burn & Tarn Willers for their Sound Design in The Zone of Interest, and from the UK, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper took home the European Young Audience Award. This year’s European Lifetime Achievement Award went to Academy Award, BAFTA, and Olivier-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave (Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, Blow-Up, Isadora).
As part of the partnership, our students were also able to attend the ceremony itself, which Project Manager Hannah Pearson (MA Screenwriting), described as the highlight of the entire experience.
It’s so easy in this industry to feel like everything you do is going into a vacuum, getting you nowhere. But attending the 36th Awards Ceremony, seeing the team’s hard work on the big screen, and being in the same room as so many filmmakers I admire, watching newcomers take home the big prize… it all really inspired me.
It reaffirmed the belief that I do belong here. It’s not every day that I get to dress up and drink champagne with Sandra Hüller – but if I keep at it and work hard, then some days, hey, I just might!
The Audience Clips
Ahead of the Awards, our students were tasked by the European Film Academy Productions to produce ‘Audience Clips’ for five categories. These videos saw the group working to a technical and creative brief to produce videos where selected audience groups would present and announce the nominated films.
From ‘Best European Film’ to ‘Best European Documentary’, these clips took our students and graduates across the city of Berlin, filming against a range of famous landmarks to highlight the 2023 host city for the Awards. While every location had its charm, for Hannah Pearson, there was a clear winner…
‘It’s hard to argue against filming at Teufelsberg,’ she shared. ‘It’s iconic Berlin, the art is amazing – and it was one of our biggest crew days. I got to be with my favourite people – all while freezing in the cold wind!’
‘Each moment captured tells a story of commitment and excellence,’ said Muesiri Ellis-Odjurhe (MA Cinematography), another graduate involved in the project. ‘It’s a testament to the incredible synergy within our team, and the profound impact of our shared dedication to filmmaking’.
Go behind the scenes of the team’s Audience Clips with this video, created by Muesiri Ellis-Odjurhe!
Congratulations to all involved!
Once again, the entire MetFilm School community sends huge congratulations to the 17 students and graduates involved in this partnership, listed here by their degree:
- BA Practical Filmmaking (2 Year): Miriam Gurguta
- MA Cinematography: Emma Barbier, Thomas Brodtmann Valenzuela, Maeve Coffey, Rachel Daly, Muesiri Ellis-Odjurhe, Anirudh Ganapathy, Anastasiya Plotnikova, Rahul Varghese, Tzu-Jui Yeh
- MA Directing: Katelyn Fournier
- MA Documentary & Factual: Dasha Altukhova, Mariolina Falone, Julie Kebbi, Luke Kellerhouse
- MA Screenwriting: Steindor Jonsson, Hannah Pearson
Thank you also to the project’s Sound Designer, Bruno Alexei Pineda Galar, and both the wider MetFilm School and European Film Academy teams for their hard work and support.
As Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy, nicely sums up…
The show was beautiful and impressive and, in my opinion, helped to build up the Academy and its’ important work, step by step, year by year.
I really liked the tonality, the humour, the modernity, and the playfulness that the MetFilm School graduates brought into many elements. A big thank you to them all!
- You can find the full list of winners from the 36th European Film Awards here.
- MetFilm School Berlin students & graduates involved in this partnership studied a range of BA & MA Degrees. Explore them all at our next Open Day in February 2024.
Hero & Featured Image Source: All Winners at the 36th European Film Awards ceremony at ARENA Berlin. Photo by Sebastian Gabsch.
