Pawlikowski's 'Ida' triumphs at European Film Awards

A handout photograph provided by the Riga Culture Capital shows Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (C) during the European Film Awards ceremony in Riga, Latvia, 13 December 2014. EPA/MARTINS OTTO

Over 3000 members of the European Film Academy submitted their votes for Saturday's finale.

Besides the award for best film of the year, Ida also took the prizes for European Director 2014, European Screenwriter 2014 (Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz) and European Cinematographer 2014 (Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski).

Pawlikowski likewise won over cinema-goers themselves, winning the People's Choice Award for 2014.

"The people never choose us!'' the director joked.

''We made a black-and-white movie with a camera that doesn't move," he reflected

"I guess democracy is a good idea after all."

Ida explores the plight of a novitiate nun in early 1960s Poland, after she discovers that her parents were Jewish and that they had been murdered in the Second World War.

The plot focuses on her relationship with her newly discovered aunt, an embittered judge who took part in Stalinist show trials.

Although the plot is fictional, Pawlikowski has acknowledged that the character of Aunt Wanda is loosely based on Helena Brus, a Stalinist-era Polish-Jewish judge who died in the UK in 2008.

Pawlikowski, who emigrated from Poland as a teenager and spent much of his professional life in the UK, knew Helena Brus while the two lived in Oxford, although at the time he did not know of her past.

The film has been tipped by critics as the favourite to win the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Oscars. (nh)

Source: PAP, Hollywood Reporter