YOUTH WINS BIG AT EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's Swiss-set film with an English lead, Youth, won top awards at the European Film Awards. Both lead acting winners, including Youth's Michael Caine, were also recipients of special awards, as 45 Years' Charlotte Rampling was honoured both for her performance in Andrew Haigh's film and for her lifetime achievement as an actor. The technical category winners had previously been announced; nominees can be found in full here, and winners in full below:

European Film 2015
Youth (Paolo Sorrentino)

European Director 2015
Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)

European Actor 2015
Michael Caine (Youth)

European Actress 2015
Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

European Screenwriter 2015
Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)

European Cinematographer 2015
Martin Gschlacht (Goodnight Mommy)

European Editor 2015
Jacek Drosio (Body)

European Production Designer 2015
Sylvie Olive (The Brand New Testament)

European Costume Designer 2015
Sarah Blenkinsop (The Lobster)

European Sound Designer 2015
Miguel Martins and Vasco Pimentel (Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One / Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate One / Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted One)

European Composer 2015
Faris Badwan and Rachel Zeffira (The Duke of Burgundy)

European Animated Feature Film 2015
Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore)

European Documentary 2015
Amy (Asif Kapadia)

European Comedy 2015
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson)

European Co-Production Award 2015
Andrea Occhipinti

FIPRESCI Prize for European Discovery
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven)

European Short Film 2015
Picnic (Jure Pavlovic)

European Achievement in World Cinema Award (Honorary Award)
Christoph Waltz

Honorary Award of the EFA President and Board
Michael Caine

Lifetime Achievement Award
Charlotte Rampling

People's Choice Award
Marshland (Alberto Rodriguez)

REVIEW - YOUTH (PAOLO SORRENTINO)

I'll give Paolo Sorrentino this much: he does the best with what he's got, after he's insisted on getting it. His films are gauche and frivolous, but what sweetness he can sift out of the pseudo-profundity and stylistic theft that threatens to overwhelm his films (and does overwhelm Youth) can make them quite pleasant viewing experiences. For a filmmaker so concerned with culture, and with appropriating other artists' cultural contributions, he's remarkably tone-deaf about creating it - even satire has to hit its target with precision, and neither the self-conscious comedy nor the excruciatingly un-self-conscious drama in Youth convinces. We're left with (generally) pretty pictures and (generally) pretty sounds, and it's only in the assembling that Sorrentino is able to make anything attractive out of them. It's as ephemeral as it is ersatz, but it'll do until Jane Fonda arrives. Alas, for all that this writer / director is enamoured with the cute contrivances he forces his characters to endure, he's remarkably ill-informed about the way in which people live their lives - people like this barely even exist, and are evidently insufferable if they do. With a forgetful male gaze and the pomposity of a psychology dropout, Sorrentino spins frivolity into supposed shrewdness, indulging in crass cliches about ageing amid grandiose pontifications about life. That reads like a generalisation; it's not. The film is that simplistic, that presumptuous. I mentioned Jane Fonda, and with good reason: she's worth it, every silly second of Youth. She is what this film ought to be, wants to be, and certainly would be if its key contributors could see further than the inner end of their collective rectum. Remember when I gave San Andreas an extra star because of Kylie Minogue? That'd be too much for this tripe - half an extra star shall suffice.

2015 EUROPEAN FILM AWARD NOMINATIONS!

Paolo Sorrentino's Youth leads the European Film Award nominations for 2015 with five mentions. After an impressive, diverse slate of winners in the technical categories, EFA voters skewed somewhat more mainstream with their main category nominations; less-hyped titles still managed to break through, though, such as Grimur Hakonarson's Cannes award-winning Rams for Best European Film and Romanian Oscar entry Aferim! for Best Screenplay. Awards will be handed out on the 12th of December. All the details below:

Best European Film
The Lobster (Ceci Dempsey, Efthymis Filippou, Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos and Lee Magiday)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven, Charles Gillibert and Alice Winocour)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson and Pernilla Sandstrom)
Rams (Grimur Hakonarson and Grimur Jonsson)
Victoria (Jan Dressler and Sebastian Schipper)
Youth (Carlotta Calori, Francesca Cima, Nicola Giuliano and Paolo Sorrentino)

Best European Director
Roy Andersson (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)
Nanni Moretti (My Mother)
Sebastian Schipper (Victoria)
Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)
Malgorzata Szumowska (Body)

Best European Actor
Michael Caine (Youth)
Tom Courtenay (45 Years)
Colin Farrell (The Lobster)
Christian Friedel (13 Minutes)
Vincent Lindon (The Measure of a Man)

Best European Actress
Margherita Buy (My Mother)
Laia Costa (Victoria)
Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)
Rachel Weisz (Youth)

Best European Screenwriter
Roy Andersson (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence)
Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Andrew Haigh (45 Years)
Radu Jude and Florin Lazarescu (Aferim!)
Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)

Best European Documentary
Amy (James Gay-Rees and Asif Kapadia)
Dancing with Maria (Miha Cernec, Ivan Gergolet, Igor Princic and David Rubio)
The Look of Silence (Signe Byrge Sorensen and Joshua Oppenheimer)
A Syrian Love Story (Sean McAllister and Elhum Shakerifar)
Toto and His Sisters (Hanka Kastelicova, Marcian Lazar, Catalin Mitulescu, Alexander Nanau and Valeriu Nicolae)

Best European Comedy
The Belier Family (Victoria Bedos, Thomas Bidegain, Stanislas Carre de Malberg, Stephane Celerier, Eric Jehelmann, Eric Lartigau and Philippe Rousselet)
The Brand New Testament (Thomas Gunzig, Daniel Marquet, Olivier Rausin and Jaco van Dormael)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson and Pernilla Sandstrom)

2015 OSCAR PREDICTIONS AT THE 2/3-YEAR POINT

Just under four months before nominations are announced, here's an updated set of possible contenders for Oscar nods in January. Just for fun, like the last set.

Best Picture

Beasts of No Nation

Carol

Inside Out

Joy

The Revenant

Spotlight

Steve Jobs

Youth

Best Director

Cary Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation)

Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)

Todd Haynes (Carol)

Thomas McCarthy (Spotlight)

Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Michael Caine (Youth)

Johnny Depp (Black Mass)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett (Truth)

Brie Larson (Room)

Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation)

Tom Hardy (The Revenant)

Harvey Keitel (Youth)

Robert Redford (Truth)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Original Screenplay

The Hateful Eight

Inside Out

Joy

Spotlight

Youth

Best Adapted Screenplay

45 Years

Beasts of No Nation

Carol

The Revenant

Steve Jobs

Best Cinematography

Carol

The Hateful Eight

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Sicario

Best Editing

Bridge of Spies

The Hateful Eight

The Revenant

Steve Jobs

Youth

Best Production Design

Bridge of Spies

By the Sea

Carol

Cinderella

The Danish Girl

Best Costume Design

By the Sea

Carol

Cinderella

The Danish Girl

Macbeth

Best Sound Mixing

Bridge of Spies

In the Heart of the Sea

The Revenant

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Sound Editing

The Hateful Eight

In the Heart of the Sea

Inside Out

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Visual Effects

In the Heart of the Sea

Jurassic World

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Makeup

The Danish Girl

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Best Original Score

Bridge of Spies

By the Sea

The Danish Girl

The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

Best Original Song

Dope

Freeheld

Love & Mercy

Southpaw

Spectre

Best Animated Feature

The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

The Little Prince

Phantom Boy

Best Documentary

Cartel Land

The Hunting Ground

Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

Iris

The Look of Silence

Best Foreign Language Film

The Assassin

Rams

The Second Mother

Son of Saul

Theeb