Reykjavík will host the EFA Ceremony in 2022
The 33rd European Film Awards will take place as a virtual ceremony without an audience, broadcast and streamed from the European Film Academy's seat, Berlin, on Saturday, 12 December 2020. With deep regret but in full and mutual agreement, the European Film Academy (EFA), the Mayor of Reykjavík and the Icelandic Minister of Education, Science and Culture, decided to cancel the event in the Icelandic capital in December 2020, and are happy to announce that instead the 35th European Film Awards Ceremony will be presented in Reykjavik in December 2022.
The decision acknowledges the deteriorating situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic in an increasing number of European countries, and in Iceland. The pandemic will affect all events usually taking place during the EFA Weekend. The European Film Academy and its in-house company EFA Productions are currently working on a new concept for an EFA Week of additional online-events to involve its partners and members, including the annual General Assembly.
The awarding procedures will remain the same, i.e. most awards are voted for directly by the over 3,800 EFA Members. Due to the pandemic, the nominations will also be announced online, on Tuesday, 10 November, in a livestream presented together with EFA's longtime partners at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain.
EFA Chairman Mike Downey comments: “The decision was not easy but it was made with responsibility and out of care for our guests. No one is more disappointed than our Icelandic friends and we, at EFA, that we will not be able to come together in Reykjavik this year. A lot of creativity, passion and energy was put from all sides into the EFA Weekend, and we have become one great team. The good news is, however, that all of this can be maintained and that our inspiring co-operation will continue with the aim to create an even more exciting celebration of European cinema in Iceland in December 2022, when the world will hopefully have defeated COVID-19. And meanwhile the EFA forest in Heiðmörk, which we planted this July with the Reykjavik Forest Association and the help of our friends from the Icelandic film community, will continue to grow. The 3,750 trees will now thrive in even less polluted air and wait for us to come back in two years.”
Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, Icelandic Minister of Education, Science and Culture, states: „ It is a great pleasure and an honour that Iceland will be able to host the European Film Awards in 2022. We have been looking very much forward to inviting our European guests to Iceland to celebrate the close collaboration in European cinema and filmmaking. Unfortunately, a global spike in the COVID pandemic has halted our plans. We remain optimistic and excited to work with the European Film Academy in planning the awards celebration in 2022 and hope to see you all in Reykjavik in two years!“
Dagur B. Eggertsson, Mayor of Reykjavik: “We had been looking forward to show our guests everything that Reykjavík, as well as the Icelandic film and creative industries, have to offer. But this is the only sensible decision to make at this time. In two years' time, hopefully we will have overcome the virus and it will be only more exciting to host this amazing event in Harpa, our beautiful concert hall and conference centre. See you in Reykjavík in 2022!”
The Icelandic film Echo by Rúnar Rúnarsson has been long-listed for the European Film Awards' Feature Film Selection. Echo is also Iceland's nominee for the 2020 Nordic Council Film Prize. Najwa Najjar's Between Heaven and Earth, a Palestine/Iceland/Luxembourg coproduction, has also been long-listed for the award. The film's cinematographer is Tómas Tómasson and the Icelandic producers are Eggert Ketilsson, Fahad Falur Jabali and Elísabet Rónaldsdóttir.
