As moviegoers count down the days until the latest film by award-winning Turkish director Emin Alper reaches the silver screen, it was announced on Wednesday that the thriller, "Kurak Günler" ("Burning Days"), is among the eight winners of the European Film Academy's (EFA) Excellence Awards.
The European Editing award went to Özcan Vardar and Eytan İpeker for Alper’s "Burning Days," which world premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section this year, according to a statement from the academy on the awards, which are known as the European Oscars.
Set in a small town in the Turkish heartland of Anatolia that is dealing with water and political crises, the film focuses on a young and dedicated prosecutor. The film is Alper’s fourth movie following "Beyond the Hill," "Frenzy," and "A Tale of Three Sisters."
The winners in the categories honoring the different arts and crafts will receive their awards at a ceremony on Dec. 10 in Reykjavik, Iceland, the statement added.
Kate McCullough won the European Cinematography award for "The Quiet Girl." Jim Clay received the Production Design award while Charlotte Walter won the Costume Design award for the drama "Belfast."
The Make-up and Hair award went to Heike Merker for the German WWI drama "All Quiet On the Western Front." Paweł Mykietyn won the Original Score award for "EO," which is also Poland's nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars for 2023.
The European Sound award went to Simone Paolo Olivero, Paolo Benvenuti, Benni Atria, Marco Saitta, Ansgar Frerich and Florian Holzner for "The Hole," while Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller and Markus Frank won the European Visual Effects award for "All Quiet On the Western Front."
A special eight-member jury consisting of representatives of the different arts and crafts chose the winners based on the European Film Awards Feature Film Selection, according to the statement.
Among the jury members were production designer Henrich Boraros from the Czech Republic, sound designer Pascal Capitolin from France, visual effects supervisor Jaime Cebrian from Spain, make-up and hair artist Charlotte Chang from Germany, composer Christina Georgiou from the Greek Cypriot administration, costume designer Magdalena Labuz from Luxembourg, editor Sarah McTeigue from Ireland/Italy and cinematographer Nathalie Pitters from the U.K.