Melancholia takes Best Film at the European Film Awards

The 24th annual European Film Awards took place in Berlin last night, with Lars von Trier's Melancholia taking home the top honour, Best European Film, along with the Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award (Manuel Alberto Claro) and Best Production Design (Jette Lehmann).

However, von Trier lost out on the gong for Best Director to fellow Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (In a Better World), while Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg were also overlooked for Best Actress, with Tilda Swinton receiving the award for her work in Lynne Ramsay's hard-hitting drama We Need to Talk About Kevin. Further British success came in the form of Colin Firth, who added the Best European Actor gong to his impressive collection of accolades for The King's Speech, which of course includes Best Actor at the 83rd Academy Awards back in February of this year, while Stephen Frears was the recipient of the EFA Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of a career that includes the likes of Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Mary Reilly, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen and Tamara Drewe.

Take a look at all the winners (in bold) from last night's ceremony...

European Film
MELANCHOLIA (dir. Lars von Trier)
THE ARTIST (dir. Michel Hazanavicius)
IN A BETTER WORLD (dir. Susanne Bier)
THE KID WITH A BIKE (dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
THE KING'S SPEECH (dir. Tom Hooper)
LE HAVRE (dir. Aki Kaurismaeki)

European Director
Susanne Bier - IN A BETTER WORLD
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne - THE KID WITH A BIKE
Aki Kaurismaeki - LE HAVRE
Bela Tarr - THE TURIN HORSE
Lars von Trier - MELANCHOLIA

European Actor
Colin Firth - THE KING’S SPEECH
Jean Dujardin - THE ARTIST
Mikael Persbrandt - IN A BETTER WORLD
Michel Piccoli - HABEMUS PAPAM
Andre Wilms - LE HAVRE

European Actress
Tilda Swinton - WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Kirsten Dunst - MELANCHOLIA
Cecile de France - THE KID WITH A BIKE
Charlotte Gainsbourg - MELANCHOLIA
Nadezhda Markina - ELENA

European Screenwriter
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne - THE KID WITH A BIKE
Anders Thomas Jensen - IN A BETTER WORLD
Aki Kaurismaeki - LE HAVRE
Lars von Trier - MELANCHOLIA

Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer Award
Manuel Alberto Claro - MELANCHOLIA
Fred Kelemen - THE TURIN HORSE
Guillaume Schiffman - THE ARTIST
Adam Sikora - ESSENTIAL KILLING

European Editor
Tariq Anwar - THE KING’S SPEECH
Mathilde Bonnefoy - THREE
Molly Malene Stensgaard - MELANCHOLIA

European Production Designer
Jette Lehmann - MELANCHOLIA
Paola Bizzarri - HABEMUS PAPAM
Antxon Gomez - THE SKIN I LIVE IN

European Composer
Ludovic Bource - THE ARTIST
Alexandre Desplat - THE KING’S SPEECH
Alberto Iglesias - THE SKIN I LIVE IN
Mihaly Vig - THE TURIN HORSE

European Discovery - Prix Fipresci
OXYGEN (dir. Hans Van Nuffel)
BREATHING (dir. Karl Markovics)
MICHAEL (dir. Markus Schleinzer)
NOTHING'S ALL BAD (dir. Mikkel Munch-Fals)
TILVA ROS (dir. Nikola Ležaić)

European Film Academy Documentary - Prix Arte
PINA (dir. Wim Wenders)
POSITION AMONG THE STARS (dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich)
¡VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS! (dir. Victor Kossakovsky)

European Film Academy Animated Feature Film
CHICO & RITA (dir. Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba)
THE RABBI'S CAT (dir. Antoine Delesvaux and Joann Sfar)
A CAT IN PARIS (dir. Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol

European Film Academy Short Film
THE WHOLLY FAMILY (dir. Terry Gilliam)

European Co-Production Award
Mariela Besuievsky

European Achievement in World Cinema
Mads Mikkelsen

European Film Academy Special Honorary Award
Michel Piccoli

EFA Lifetime Achievement Award
Stephen Frears

The People's Choice Award
THE KING'S SPEECH (dir. Tom Hooper)