The European Film Awards has cancelled its plans for a physical ceremony this year due to rising Covid numbers in Germany.
A small ceremony for nominees only was due to take place in Berlin on December 11. Instead, it will now take place in a hybrid of digital formats, including pre-produced and live online.
Positive cases in Germany have been rising consistently over the last two months, reaching close to 60,000 per day on average this last week. Further concerns over the so-called Omicron variant have seen governments across Europe react by introducing stricter measures.
German actress, moderator and writer Annabelle Mandeng will host the hybrid ceremony, which will still be broadcast from the Arena Berlin studio. She will be joined by a handful of other presents at the physical site. The ceremony will be streamed live on europeanfilmawards.eu and across various social channels.
“As much as we regret this decision,” European Film Academy director Matthijs Wouter Knol said. “At the moment what counts most to us is to prevent people from travelling across Europe and heightening the risk for everybody – this concerns foremost both nominees and winners, but also includes our team in Berlin. We trust that the available technology and a massive effort from everybody involved, combined with our collective experience with all kinds of online gatherings, will make it possible to highlight the exceptional films and achievements nominated for this year’s European Film Awards. In difficult times like these, we especially hope that the Awards Ceremony will bring together the European film community and reach as many film-loving members of the public as possible through streaming.”
