Christmas came early this year for the Good Bye, Lenin! team when they picked up six of 16 awards at the European Film Awards (EFA) held in Berlin's Arena on Saturday evening (6 Dec).

The tragicomedy, which already won nine Lolas at the German Film Awards last June and is Germany's entry for the Foreign Language Oscar, started the evening by bagging all three of the Jameson People's Choice Awards for Best European Director, Best European Actor and Best European Actress.

Lead actor Daniel Bruehl later returned to the stage to receive the European Actor 2003 and exclaimed "this is too much for me. Now I really do need a whiskey!", while the film's screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg was presented with the European Screenwriter 2003 award.

"It's just incredible - especially for a German film in the German language, this ugly language", producer Stefan Arndt quipped on Good Bye, Lenin! becoming the first German film to take the top EFA award.

Meanwhile, Denys Arcand joked on picking up the Prix Screen International for the best Non-European Film for The Barbarian Invasions that when he heard that the awards ceremony was being held in an arena, he had immediately thought of ice hockey, "so you had to give the prize to a Canadian!"

The general opinion of this year's ceremony was that it was the best one for a long time thanks to a new artistic concept devised by the European Film Academy's Chairman Wim Wenders, director Marion Doering and producer Dennis Davidson. Before the ceremony, Wenders said that the Academy would be "trying to establish a different spirit, a whole new approach to giving awards and to celebrating European cinema. Something we want to bring back with this year's new ceremony format is the atmosphere of brotherhood and solidarity".

The fact that the new format hit the right note was in no small part thanks to the charm and professionalism of this year's new master of ceremonies German actor Heino Ferch.

The Awards in full:

EUROPEAN FILM 2003
Good Bye, Lenin!, Germany
directed by Wolfgang Becker
produced by X Filme Creative Pool GmbH

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2003
Lars von Trier
for Dogville, Denmark

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2003
Daniel Brühl
in Good Bye, Lenin!, Germany

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2003
Charlotte Rampling
in Swimming Pool, France

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2003
Bernd Lichtenberg
for Good Bye, Lenin!, Germany

EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER 2003
Anthony Dod Mantle
for 28 Days Later, UK & Dogville, Denmark

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2003
Claude Chabrol, France

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2003
Carlo di Palma, Italy

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DISCOVERY 2003 - Prix Fassbinder
Vozvraschenie (The Return)
by Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY CRITICS AWARD 2003 - Prix Fipresci
Buongiorno, Notte (Goodmorning, Night)
by Marco Bellocchio, Italy

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2003 - Prix Arte
S21, La Machine de Mort Khmere Rouge (S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine)
by Rithy Panh, France

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2003 - Prix UIP
(A) Torzija
by Stefan Arsenijevic, Slovenia

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY NON-EUROPEAN FILM 2003 -
Prix Screen International
Les Invasions Barbares
by Denys Arcand, Canada

THE JAMESON PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS 2003
voted for by film fans across Europe -
Best European Director:
Wolfgang Becker
for Good Bye, Lenin!, Germany

Best European Actor:
Daniel Brühl
in Good Bye, Lenin!, Germany

Best European Actress:
Katrin Sass
in Good Bye, Lenin! Germany