RO film Collective wins European Documentary 2020 award
Alexander Nanau's documentary Collective, about the journalistic investigation that uncovered a health scandal after the fire at Colectiv club in Bucharest in October 2015, received the European Documentary award at this year's edition of the European Film Awards.
Accepting the prize in an online ceremony, Nanau spoke of the power of investigative journalism as a pillar of democracy and thanked the film's protagonists.
"I think most of all we have to thank our protagonists because of their courage to oppose the corruption of the people in the Romanian healthcare system, of politics that steps on lives. And we also have to thank them for the courage to let us into their lives. It's an honor to be nominated along so many great filmmakers. I appreciate every one of them," he said.
Collective was nominated for the European Documentary 2020 award alongside Romanian Radu Ciorniciuc's Acasă. My Home, Victor Kossakovsky's Gunda, Sébastien Lifshitz's Little Girl, Susanne Regina Meures' Saudi Runaway, and Feras Fayyad's The Cave.
The 2020 European Film award went to Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round.
Collective is also one of the three productions nominated for the LUX Audience Award, which merges the LUX Prize and the EFA People's Choice Award. It is awarded by Parliament and the European Film Academy and in partnership with the European Commission and the Europa Cinemas network. It will be selected by MEPs and the audience, each accounting for 50% of the final decision.
Collective is nominated alongside Another Round and Jan Komasa's Corpus Christi.
The list of this year's winners of the European Film Academy awards is available here.
At the same time, Collective was nominated in four categories of the Cinema Eye Honors 2020 awards, where Acasă. My Home also landed one nomination. The awards "recognize feature and short-length films and series with an emphasis on nonfiction work that is designed for public distribution, whether primarily theatrical, festival, broadcast or streaming." The inaugural Cinema Eye Honors were held at New York City's IFC Center in March, 2008.
Collective is nominated in the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Outstanding Achievement in Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Editing (Dana Bunescu, George Cragg and Alexander Nanau), and Outstanding Achievement in Production (Alexander Nanau, Bianca Oana, Bernard Michaud, and Hanna Lastelicová). Journalist Cătălin Tolontan is recognized in The Unforgettables category, a non-competitive honor that celebrates "the unique collaboration between filmmakers and their subjects."
Meanwhile, Acasa. My Home is nominated for the Spotlight Award.
The nominations for this year's Cinema Eye Honors awards are listed here.
Collective, which premiered last year at the Venice Film Festival, is Romania's proposal for the 2021 Oscars, in the Best International Feature Film category.
(Photo: screenshot from film)
simona@romania-insider.com
