EUROPE Awards
Ambassador of European Cinema Award 2023
He was born in Germany, his mother is French, his father is Irish American, he is the godfather of the child of a legendary Danish director, his former wife is ex-Yugoslavian: Jean-Marc Barr is a true border crosser, which also shows in his art. The French and English-speaking actor, who played with natural confidence in films of all nationalities, has not lost the impish smile we all know from the 1988 The Big Blue that made him world-famous and the idol of a generation. Luc Besson’s movie, which starred Jean Reno and Rosanna Arquette alongside Barr, was the most successful film of the 1980s in his country – and one of the most memorable French films ever made. He could have been a Hollywood star, but he stayed in Europe. He first starred in a Lars Von Trier film in 1991, and Europa also marked the beginning of a long friendship. They went on making films together, such as the Cannes Grand Prix-winning Breaking the Waves, the Palme d’Orwinning Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, The Boss of It All and Nymph()maniac. Lovers, his directorial debut, became the first non-Danish film to bear the Dogma 95 stamp. Anyone who has ever seen this beautiful love story – starring Elodie Bouchez and Sergej Trifunović – will never forget the film. After directing three films and playing about 70 roles, Jean-Marc Barr, this year’s President of the Jury of the Miskolc International Film Festival, remains very active not only as an actor and director, but also as a photographer and a committed environmentalist. Jean-Marc Barr receives the Ambassador of European Cinema Award on 2 September, before the screening of The Big Blue.
Ambassador of European Cinema 2021
“As a kid I dreamt of becoming an Olympic champion…I was fencing, riding, but enjoyed playing the violin and dancing as well. And if someone wants to do everything, what else could he be than an actor?” said one of the most well-known figures of Polish cinema in an interview once. He has been playing major roles in Polish and European films since 1965, but millions have also seen him acting alongside Angelina Jolie in the Hollywood action thriller “Salt”. The emblematic actor of Academy Honorary Award winner Andrzej Wajda has played a number of memorable figures in films like “Ashes” , “Everything for Sale”, “Landscape After the Battle”, “The Birch Wood”, “The Wedding” and “Pan Tadeusz”. One of the highlights of their cooperation is the 1976 Oscar-winning epic “The Promised Land”, which will be screened at this year’s CineFest. Olbrychski has appeared in several films directed by Miklós Jancsó, and he also starred in the Oscar and Palme d’Or winner “The Tin Drum”. It would take pages to list his partners in films: from legendary Zbigniew Cybulski, Daniel Day-Lewis and Barbara Sukowa through Andrzej Seweryn, Fanny Ardant, Hanna Schygulla to Jeanne Moreau and Julia Ormond.
In 2021 Daniel Olbrychski receives the Ambassador of European Cinema Award of the CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival at the opening ceremony of the Festival.
Ambassador of European Cinema 2019
According to Tennessee Williams Vanessa Redgrave is “the greatest living actress of our time”. Only superlatives do justice to the Oscar, Golden Globe, two Emmy and a Tony Awards winner actress who has also won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, the Screen Actors Guild Award and a BAFTA TV Award – to name only the most important awards she has been given. She was nominated for the Academy Award six times and during her career she has worked with legendary directors, such as Tony Richardson, James Ivory, Karel Reisz, Fred Zinnemann, Joe Wright, Sidney Lumet, Richard Attenborough and Michelangelo Antonioni. She reigns as a queen both on stage and in screen. As a member of the theatrical Redgrave-family (her father was the great actor, Sir Michael Redgrave) she settled on acting at an early age. The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador was unforgettable in the role of Isadora Duncan just like in other fi lms like Julia, Oh! What a Lovely War, Murder on the Orient Express, Mission Impossible and Howards End – to point out only a few of the hundreds of roles she has played so far.
VANESSA REDGRAVE AND FRANCO NERO RECEIVE THE FESTIVAL’S AMBASSADOR OF EUROPEAN CINEMA AWARD ON 19 SEPTEMBER AT 6:30 PM IN THE PRESSBURGER ROOM OF HOUSE OF ARTS.
Ambassador of European Cinema 2019
The blue-eyed Italian actor famous for his steely look became well-known after playing the leading role in Django in 1966. Sergio Corbucci’s Italowestern is a real cult classic: several unoffi cial and official sequels of Django have been produced and it inspired directors such as Quentin Tarantino. In his Django Unchained directed by Tarantino, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx, the legendary Nero appears in a cameo role. In 1967 Nero played the legendary Lancelot Du Lac in Camelot. This is his fi rst movie with Vanessa Redgrave, who he fell in love with and had a child shortly after. Franco Nero married the Academy Award winning actress in 2006. Hundreds of thousands remember Damiano Damiani’s mafi a movies from the 1970s like Confessions of a Police Captain or How to Kill a Judge. Similarly well-known is Keoma by Enzo G. Castellari, The Day of the Owl (in which Nero plays with Claudia Cardinale, our Lifetime Achievement Award recipient of 2015) or Querelle and Tristana by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Luis Buñuel. We should not forget about The Conquest and Sacra Co-rona by Gábor Koltay or Die Hard 2 in which he played the main antagonist with Bruce Willis. In 2005 Nero made his directorial debut with Forever Blues and in 2008 he played the leading role in Tamás Almási’s Mario, the Magician. In 2017 he played Julius in John Wick: Chapter 2. Franco Nero played in more than 200 fi lms so far.
Ambassador of European Cinema 2018
During his long and outstanding career Krzysztof Zanussi won the Golden Lion in Venice, the Jury Prize in Cannes and the Golden Leopard in Locarno, and he has been nominated to the Golden Globe as well. Zanussi, one of the major figures of European and international cinema, can only be described in superlatives – and imperatives. He is probably one of the most intellectual, most intelligent, purest and most detached (but also passionate and sentimental) directors of our time. He is also a professional in the best and purest sense of the word and speaks several languages. His heroes, mostly during times of historical and political unrest
in Central Europe, seek for purity, morale and meaning in their lives and in their relationships that are irrespective of the era and the society. The director worked with stars like Vittorio Gassman, Daniel Olbrychski, Christoph Waltz, Raf Vallone, Max von Sydow, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Maja Komorowska, Robert Powell and Valeria Golino and directed world-famous films like the Camouflage, The Structure of Crystal, Spiral, Imperative, A Year of the Quiet Sun or From a Far Country, the latter presenting the early life of Pope John Paul II. His congenial partner, Sławomir Idziak, who photographed 13 of Zanussi’s movies, was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award of Jameson CineFest in 2009. The leading Hungarian film festival pays tribute to the legendary artist with screening three of his masterpieces (The Structure of Crystal, the Golden Lion-winning A Year of the Quiet Sun and the Jury Prize-winning The Constant Factor) and giving him the Europe Award. Krzysztof Zanussi will be the foreman at the International Jury at this year’s Jameson CineFest.
in Central Europe, seek for purity, morale and meaning in their lives and in their relationships that are irrespective of the era and the society. The director worked with stars like Vittorio Gassman, Daniel Olbrychski, Christoph Waltz, Raf Vallone, Max von Sydow, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Maja Komorowska, Robert Powell and Valeria Golino and directed world-famous films like the Camouflage, The Structure of Crystal, Spiral, Imperative, A Year of the Quiet Sun or From a Far Country, the latter presenting the early life of Pope John Paul II. His congenial partner, Sławomir Idziak, who photographed 13 of Zanussi’s movies, was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award of Jameson CineFest in 2009. The leading Hungarian film festival pays tribute to the legendary artist with screening three of his masterpieces (The Structure of Crystal, the Golden Lion-winning A Year of the Quiet Sun and the Jury Prize-winning The Constant Factor) and giving him the Europe Award. Krzysztof Zanussi will be the foreman at the International Jury at this year’s Jameson CineFest.
Europe Awards 2017
The leading actress of ‘Shortcuts’ aka ‘Cutting it Short’, Magda Vásáryova was 19 when she played the leading role in the film, ‘Marketa Lazarova’. The three-hours epic is considered by the critics and film historians one of the European masterpieces of the golden years of the 1960s. A few years back, the premiere of its digitally re-mastered copy has been a true headliner. The actress is not only acknowledged for dozens of great roles but also for her career in politics. After the regime change she became a politician and a diplomat, making it up the being Slovakian presidential candidate. She also served as ambassador and state secretary of foreign affairs. The actress and politician speaks several languages and has a truly European point of view.
Europe Awards 2016
Juliette Binoche is the only actress who was the Best Actress of Venice, Berlin and Cannes. In Venice she was awarded for her leading role in Three Colors: Blue. In Berlin she was named Best Actress for The English Patient and in Cannes for the leading role of the Certified Copy by the legendary Abbas Kiarostami. One out of the eight Academy Awards of The English Patient went to her: playing Hana, the Canadian nurse was one of the highlights of her career. Three Colors: Blue and The English Patient made her an international star, one of the most well-known actresses of the world. She worked with the greatest masters of the world cinema: Michael Haneke’s masterpieces Code Unknown and Caché are unimaginable without Binoche. She is a great actress and a true star, an European star: role model and point of orientation for millions.
