And The Winners Might Be...

This reviewer, during the 13 years or so he has been watching films for a living, has gained something of a reputation for himself as a passionate (though not always particularly accurate) pundit, when it comes to predicting the winners of the big film awards - check out a couple of his earlier efforts here and here.

This, to be fair, is the first time I have had a bash at the European Film Awards so, as is my customary modus operandi, I will be restricting my predictions to the 'big five' categories. These are European Film, European Director, European Actor, European Actress, European Screenwriter, plus there's a special 'bonus guess' thrown in for the Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer 2009. You can check out the complete nominations here - on with the show, and best of luck to all the nominees, who will be in their finery in Bochum, Germany tomorrow (12 December 2009) for the awards ceremony.

And the predictions are:

EUROPEAN FILM 2009
This is going to go to Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One in), Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's marvellous, moving and genuinely creepy reboot of the vampire myth. You heard it here first.

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2009
A genuine toughie, this one - for me, it's a toss-up between Michael Haneke for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) and Lars von Trier for Antichrist, but I think that Haneke will hold sway.

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2009
The young, excellent thesp David Kross (who was also lucky enough to get up close and personal with Kate Winslett) will lift this for his performance in Stephen Daldry's The Reader (Der Vorleser).

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2009
For my money, nobody else but Charlotte Gainsbourg should grab this - her performance in Von Trier's Antichrist was simply amazing.

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2009
Going for a gamble here - it is this reviewer's belief that director Gianni di Gregorio will take it with his sugar-sweet but sassy script for his charming Pranzo di ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch).

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2009

And finally - the crisp, idyllic, black-and-white cinematography that hides wheels within wheels and fires within fires will take the gong for Christian Berger's work in Das Weisse Band.

Well, you haven't got much time to disagree with my predictions - all part of my plan, heh, heh, heh. I look forward to the 13 December backlash, naturally. :-)

For further information concerning all the EFA 2009 nominations, click here.

JD