Lux Prize

The European Parliament LUX Prize, commonly known as the LUX Prize or LUX Film Prize, was a prize given to a competing film by the European Parliament. Introduced in 2007, the prize is named after the Latin word for "light", lux.

The award was aimed at highlighting films which help to raise awareness of socio-political issues in Europe and to publicise and encourage distribution of European films in the European Union and throughout the world. Open to both fiction (narrative) and documentary films of feature length, entries were limited to films made within Europe and demonstrating European values and/or showcasing European culture. The finalists gained both publicity and enhanced prospects for worldwide distribution through having their films subtitled into the official 24 European languages as part of the award process.

The prize was awarded by the European Parliament and voting was based on voting by Members of the European Parliament. In 2020, it was replaced by the LUX Audience Award, presented alongside the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas, with audience voting by the public counting for 50 per cent of the vote.

History

Creation and aims

The award was created in 2007. The name of the prize originates from the Latin word for "light", lux, with the award named in honour of the Lumière Brothers, who invented cinematography. The word origin is related to the aim of the award, which is to illuminate public debate on European integration and to facilitate the diffusion of European films in the European Union".

The symbol of the LUX Prize is the Tower of Babel, and the trophy reflects the shape of a tower. It is "a symbol of history where linguistic and cultural diversity join forces". It was designed by Belgian artist Jocelyne Coster.

The European Parliament believes that films help to instigate debate and raise awareness of socio-political issues in Europe, especially with regard to European integration, thus helping to forge and celebrate a stronger European identity and values. The prize also helps to publicise and encourage distribution of European films in the European Union and throughout the world, which otherwise may not get widespread distribution owing to language and other barriers.

Earlier editions

For the first edition of the prize, three films were shortlisted by a 17-member panel, comprising mainly people in the film industry, who viewed 800 feature films produced in Europe in the year from May 2006 to May 2007. The first LUX Prize was awarded to Turkish-born German director Fatih Akin, for his film The Edge of Heaven.

The jury members were appointed by the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education, and it was planned that a third of the jury would be rotated each year. All members of the European Parliament were able to watch the final three films, but only those who have seen all three qualify for voting rights.

The producers of the ten shortlisted films are required to provide digital copies in the form of DVDs, Vimeo link, or OpenDCP for the members of the European Parliament. In 2015, the shortlisted Son of Saul was disqualified when the production team refused to provide this, fearing that the film copies would be pirated.

In 2019, there were 21 members on the judging panel. The selection of the first 10 films was announced in March of that year, with the final three selected in July and the winner announced in Strasbourg on 27 November.

2020 changes

Partly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, changes were announced to the name, the selection process and the timetabling of the LUX Award in September 2020. The European Parliament and the European Film Academy would be responsible for the management of the award, in partnership with the European Commission and the Europa Cinemas network. The name was changed to LUX – the European Audience Film Award by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, with the abbreviated version LUX European Audience Film Award. The new format was announced by Sabine Verheyen, chair of the Culture Committee, at the 77th Venice International Film Festival.

There would henceforth be five nominees competing for the award, which would all be subtitled in 24 European languages, but due to the impact of the pandemic on the film industry, only three would be nominated for the first edition of the new format. The jury would remain similar, but the winner would be selected jointly by MEPs and the public, with each contributing 50 per cent towards the final vote.

Award process

Selection criteria

since 2019Template:Dated maintenance category (articles), films have to meet following eligibility criteria:

• Fiction or documentary films (may be animated)
• Minimum length of 60 minutes
• Produced or co-produced in a European Union country or in Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Montenegro, under the Creative Europe/Media Programme.
• Illustrates the universality of European values and the diversity of European culture, and raise awareness of social or political issues
• Released for the first time between May 1 of the previous year and June 1 of the current year. For the 2021 edition, the release period was expanded, from 1 June 2019 until 12 September 2020, including online releases.

Preselection

Ten films are shortlisted, and three of these are selected for the final competition. After three (five after 2021) films have been selected from the 10 preselected films, these films are subtitled into the 24 official EU languages, and they are screened in all EU countries during the "LUX Film Days". In the 2020 edition, no preselection was hold, announcing directly the three nominated films.

2020 selection and voting timetable

In 2020, the European Film Awards Ceremony was supposed to take place in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 12 December. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Ceremony took place the scheduled day in a virtual format broadcast and streamed from the European Film Academy site in Berlin, where the three nominated films were announced. The three nominated films were chosen by a selection panel consisting of 21 people: Mike Downey (Ireland), Honorary President of the LUX European Audience Film Award, Chairman of the European Film Academy; Jürgen Biesing (Germany), Producer, European Film Awards; Peter Bognar (Hungary), Distributor, Festival Programmer; Mihai Christian Chirilov (Romania), Film Critic, artistic director of TIFF; Ditte Daugbjerg Chistensen (Denmark), Øst for Paradis Cinema, Managing director & Head of distribution; José Luis Cienfuegos (Spain), Director of the Sevilla European Film Festival; Fatima Djoumer, International relations and events administrator, Europa Cinéma; Juliette Duret (Belgium), Head of Cinema, BOZAR; Jakub Duszynski (Poland), Distributor, GUTEK Film, Co-president Europa Distribution; Giorgio Gosetti (Italy), artistic director of Venice Days Film Festival; Vanessa Henneman (Netherlands), Talent manager/agent; Mathilde Henrot (France), Founder of Festival Scope; Matthias Holz (Sweden), Cinema exhibitor and Programming Manager; Yorgos Krassakopoulos (Greece), Head of Programming Thessaloniki Film Festival, Film Critic; Christophe Leparc (France), Secretary General of Director's Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival; Susan Newman-Baudais (Ireland), Eurimages. Head of Programme – Co-production; Karel Och (Czech Republic), Film Critic and artistic director of Karlovy Vary Film Festival; Mira Stavela (Bulgaria), Managing Director Sofia IFF; Teona Strugar Mitevska (North Macedonia), Film Director; Mantė Valiūnaitė (Lithuania), artistic director, Vilnius Film Festival; Maria Silvia Gatta (Italy), Observer.

The nominated films, after subtitling in the 24 official languages, are being screened across Europe until May 2021. Between 10 and 16 May 2021 the "LUX Audience Week" takes place, with simultaneous screenings and debates organised across the continent. The public is able to vote by ranking the nominated films, awarding them one to five stars, and the totals will represent 50 per cent of the vote, with the other 50 per cent going to the MEPs. Voting period closes on 23 May 2021.

The winning film will be announced at the LUX Award Ceremony on 9 June 2021, during a plenary sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, as in previous editions. The Parliament President presents the award to the laureate in front of the MEPs and representatives from the other films in competition.

2020 Voting process

The audience can cast their votes for all three nominated films from 13 December 2020 until 23 May 2021 on the Lux award website. Audiences will be able to rate each film via this website. Members of the European Parliament will also vote, from March until 23 May 2021 via a dedicated voting page of the institution. Ratings can be changed an unlimited number of times until the voting closes. The last vote counts.

The final ranking will be determined by combining the public vote and the vote by the Members of the European Parliament, with each group weighing 50%.

Pre-2020 timetable and process

Date	Place	Result	Notes
February		Selection starts
June–July	Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, the Czech Republic	Launch of the Selection process	Public announcement of the 10-LUX films of the Official Selection
September	Rome, Italy	Selection of the 3 shortlist films	Announcement of the 3 films in the Official Competition
September	Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy	Special screenings	Venice Days
September–November	LUX Film Days, cities across European Union member states, candidates, European Economic Area, Switzerland	Special screenings	Launched in 2012, the project aims to bring the screenings of the 3 finalists of the award. It is aired mainly in the cinemas that are part of the Europa Cinemas film theatre networks. For most countries, the screenings are also national premieres. Screenings take place also in cooperation with film festivals: • Thessaloniki International Film Festival, • Stockholm International Film Festival, • Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, • Sevilla Film Festival, • Sofia International Film Festival, • Zagreb Film Festival.
November	internet	final voting	Only Members of the European Parliament, who have seen all three films during the screenings or extra muros, are entitled to vote. Voting takes place electronically via the intranet site at the Parliament. The film which gains the highest number of votes is the winner.
November–December	the Seat of the European Parliament, Strasbourg, France	the formal, official sitting session of parliament, Selection of the winner	LUX Prize Award Ceremony and seminar for journalists

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

2000s

Year	Result	English title	Original title	Director	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)	Language	Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film	European Film Awards Best Film
2007	Winner	The Edge of Heaven	Auf der anderen Seite	Fatih Akın		German, Turkish, English	submission	nomination
	Top-3 Shortlist	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile	Cristian Mungiu		Romanian	submission	won
		Belle Toujours		Manoel de Oliveira		French
	Selection	Das Fräulein		Andrea Štaka		German, Swiss German dialect, Serbo-Croatian
		Kalinovsky Square	Ploshcha	Jury Chaščavacki		Russian, Belarusian, English (subtitles)
		It Happened Just Before	Kurz davor ist es passiert	Anja Salomonowitz		German
		Iska's Journey	Iszka utazása	Csaba Bollók		Hungarian, Romanian
		California Dreamin'	California Dreamin' (nesfârșit)	Cristian Nemescu		Romanian, English
2008	Winner	Lorna's Silence	Le Silence de Lorna	Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne		French, Italian, German
	Top-3 Shortlist	Delta		Kornél Mundruczó		Hungarian
		Citizen Havel	Občan Havel	Miroslav Janek and Pavel Koutecký		Czech
	Selection	Revanche		Götz Spielmann		German, Russian
		The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner	Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде	Stephan Komandarev		Bulgarian, German, Italian, Slovenian
		Cloud 9	Wolke Neun	Andreas Dresen		German
		Tricks	Sztuczki	Andrzej Jakimowski		Polish
		Autumn Ball	Sügisball	Veiko Õunpuu		Estonian
		Worlds Apart	To verdener	Niels Arden Oplev		Danish
		The rest of the night	Il Resto della notte	Francesco Munzi		Italian, Romanian
2009	Winner	Welcome		Philippe Lioret		French, English, Kurdish, Turkish
	Top-3 Shortlist	Eastern Plays	Източни пиеси	Kamen Kalev		Bulgarian
		Storm	Sturm	Hans-Christian Schmid		English, German, Bosnian, Serbian
	Selection	Pandora's Box	Pandora'nın Kutusu	Yeşim Ustaoğlu		Turkish
		35 Shots of Rum	35 Rhums	Claire Denis		French, German
		Ander		Roberto Castón		Basque, Spanish
		North	Nord	Rune Denstad Langlo		Norwegian
		Katalin Varga		Peter Strickland		Hungarian, Romanian
		Lost Persons Area		Caroline Strubbe		English, Dutch, Hungarian
		For a Moment, Freedom	Ein Augenblick Freiheit	Francesco Munzi		English, Persian, Turkish

2010s

Year	Result	English title	Original title	Director	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)	Language	Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film	European Film Awards Best Film
2010	Winner	When We Leave	Die Fremde	Feo Aladag		German, Turkish
	Top-3 Shortlist	Akadimia Platonos	Ακαδημία Πλάτωνος	Filippos Tsitos		Greek, Albanian, German
		Illégal		Olivier Masset-Depasse		French
	Selection	Medal of Honor	Medalia de onoare	Calin Peter Netzer		Romanian
		The Mouth of the Wolf	La bocca del lupo	Pietro Marcello		Italian
		Lourdes		Jessica Hausner		French
		I Am Love	Io sono l'amore	Luca Guadagnino		Italian
		Bibliothèque Pascal		Szabolcs Hajdu		Romanian, English, Hungarian
		R		Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer		Danish, Arabic
		Eastern Drift	Eurazijos aborigenas	Šarūnas Bartas		French, Lithuanian, Russian
2011	Winner	The Snows of Kilimanjaro	Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro	Robert Guédiguian		French
	Top-3 Shortlist	Attenberg		Athina Rachel Tsangari		Greek
		Play		Ruben Östlund		Swedish
	Selection	Mysteries of Lisbon	Mistérios de Lisboa	Raúl Ruiz		Portuguese, French, English
		Le Havre		Aki Kaurismäki		French
		The Turin Horse	A torinói ló	Béla Tarr		Hungarian
		Morgen		Marian Crişan		Romanian, Hungarian, Turkish
		Essential Killing		Jerzy Skolimowski		English, Polish, Arabic
		We Have a Pope	Habemus Papam	Nanni Moretti		Italian
		Pina		Wim Wenders		German, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Korean, Spanish
2012	Winner	Shun Li and the Poet	Io sono Li	Andrea Segre		Italian, Mandarin
	Top-3 Shortlist	Just the Wind	Csak a szél	Benedek Fliegauf
		Tabu		Miguel Gomes
	Selection	Caesar Must Die	Cesare deve morire	Vittorio Taviani, Paolo Taviani				nomination
		Children of Sarajevo	Djeca	Aida Begić
		Barbara		Christian Petzold			submission	nomination
		Crulic: The Path to Beyond	Crulic - Drumul spre dincolo	Anca Damian
		Louise Wimmer		Cyril Mennegun
		Sister	L'Enfant d'en haut	Ursula Meier
		Our Children	À perdre la raison	Joachim Lafosse
2013	Winner	The Broken Circle Breakdown		Felix Van Groeningen		Dutch	nomination	nomination
	Top-3 Shortlist	Miele		Valeria Golino
		The Selfish Giant		Clio Barnard
	Selection	Fortress	Pevnost	Lukáš Kokeš, Klára Tasovská
		A Coffee in Berlin	Oh Boy!	Jan Ole Gerster				nomination
		The Plague	La Plaga	Neus Ballús
		The Great Beauty	La grande bellezza	Paolo Sorrentino
		Circles	Кругови	Srdan Golubovic
		In Bloom	გრძელი ნათელი დღეები	Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß
		Eat Sleep Die	Äta sova dö	Gabriela Pichler
2014	Winner	Ida		Paweł Pawlikowski		Polish, French, Latin	won	won
	Top-3 Shortlist	Class Enemy	Razredni sovražnik	Rok Biček
		Girlhood	Bande de filles	Céline Sciamma
	Selection	White God	Fehér isten	Kornél Mundruczó
		Beautiful Youth	Hermosa juventud	Jaime Rosales
		Stations of the Cross	Kreuzweg	Dietrich Brüggemann
		The Wonders	Le meraviglie	Alice Rohrwacher
		Macondo		Sudabeh Mortezai
		Force Majeure	Turist	Ruben Östlund
		Xenia		Panos H. Koutras
2015	Winner	Mustang		Deniz Gamze Ergüven		Turkish	nomination	nomination
	Top-3 Shortlist	Mediterranea		Jonas Carpignano
		The Lesson	Урок	Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov
	Selection	Rams	Hrútar	Grímur Hákonarson
		45 Years		Andrew Haigh
		A Perfect Day	Un día perfecto	Fernando León de Aranoa
		The Measure of a Man	La Loi du marché	Stéphane Brizé
		Son of Saul	Saul fia	László Nemes		German, Hungarian, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Slovak, Czech, Greek	won
		Toto and His Sisters	Toto si surorile lui	Alexander Nanau
		The High Sun	Zvizdan	Dalibor Matanić
2016	Winner	Toni Erdmann		Maren Ade		German, English, Romanian	won	won
	Top-3 Shortlist	As I Open My Eyes	À Peine J'Ouvre Les Yeux	Leyla Bouzid
		My Life as a Courgette	Ma Vie de Courgette	Claude Barras	Template:SWI
	Selection	A War	Krigen	Tobias Lindholm
		Things to Come	L'Avenir	Mia Hansen-Løve
		Sieranevada		Cristi Puiu
		Like Crazy	La pazza gioia	Paolo Virzi
		A Syrian Love Story		Sean McAllister
		Letters from War	Cartas da Guerra	Ivo Ferreira
		Suntan		Argyris Papadimitropoulos
2017	Winner	Sami Blood	Sameblod	Amanda Kernell		Swedish, South Sami
	Top-3 Shortlist	BPM (Beats per Minute)	120 battements par minute	Robin Campillo		French
		Western		Valeska Grisebach		German, Bulgarian
	Selection	A Ciambra		Jonas Carpignano		Italian
		Glory	Слава	Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov		Bulgarian
		Heartstone	Hjartasteinn	Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson		Icelandic
		King of the Belgians		Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth		English, Flemish, French, Bulgarian
		Summer 1993	Estiu 1993	Carla Simón		Catalan
		The Last Family	Ostatnia rodzina	Jan P. Matuszynski		Polish
		The Other Side of Hope	Toivon tuolla puolen	Aki Kaurismäki		Finnish, English, Arabic
2018	Winner	Woman at War	Kona fer í stríð	Benedikt Erlingsson		Icelandic, Spanish, English, Ukrainian	submission
	Top-3 Shortlist	The Other Side of Everything	Druga strana svega	Mila Turajlić
		Styx		Wolfgang Fischer
	Selection	Border	Gräns	Ali Abbasi		Swedish	submission	nomination
		Girl		Lukas Dhont
		Mug	Twarz	Małgorzata Szumowska		Polish
		Utøya: July 22	Utøya 22. juli	Erik Poppe		Norwegian
		Donbass	Донбас	Sergei Loznitsa		Russian, Ukrainian	submission
		Happy as Lazzaro	Lazzaro felice	Alice Rohrwacher		Italian		nomination
		The Silence of Others	El silencio de otros	Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar
2019	Winner	God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija	Gospod postoi, imeto i' e Petrunija	Teona Strugar Mitevska		Macedonian
	Top-3 Shortlist	The Realm	El reino	Rodrigo Sorogoyen		Spanish
		Cold Case Hammarskjöld		Mads Brügger
	Selection	Clergy	Kler	Wojciech Smarzowski		Polish
		Her Job	I douleia tis	Nikos Labôt
		Honeyland		Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov		Macedonian, Turkish, Bosnian	submission
		Invisibles	Les invisibles	Louis-Julien Petit		French
		Ray & Liz		Richard Billingham		English
		System Crasher	Systemsprenger	Nora Fingscheidt		German		nomination
		The Man Who Surprised Everyone	Человек, который удивил всех	Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov		Russian

See also

• European Film Academy Lux Award
• European Border Breakers Award
• Film Award of the Council of Europe
• Nordic Council Film Prize