'White Ribbon' is a fav at European Film Awards2009-12-13

"The White Ribbon," Michael Haneke’s disturbing drama about strange goings-on in a remote and dysfunctional village in 1913 Germany, topped the European Film Awards on Saturday, picking up best film, director and screenwriter kudos.

It was Haneke’s second major win at the European Film Awards since 2005, when his mystery drama  Cache (Hidden) swept the event.

Oscar winner Kate Winslet, who skipped the festivities, won best actress for "The Reader"; director Stephen Daldry was on hand to accept the award.

Tahar Rahim took the actor prize for "Un prophete" (A Prophet), while Anthony Dod Mantle won the cinematographer award for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Antichrist."

Danny Boyle’s Oscar winning "Slumdog" also won this year’s People’s Choice Award.

The first ever award for animated feature went to Jacques-Remy Girerd and Nora Twomey’s French-Italian coproduction "Mia and the Migoo."

Further winners included Alberto Iglesias, who took the composer award for Pedro Almodovar’s "Broken Embraces," and Polish helmer Andrzej

Wajda, who picked up the critics prize for his drama "Tatarak" (Sweet Rush).

Accepting his best film prize, Haneke said his film’s pedigree as a German-Austrian-French-Italian coproduction made it the ideal

candidate -- pic’s producers include Berlin-based X Filme, Vienna’s Wega Film, Paris-based Les Films du Losange and Rome’s Lucky Red.

The European Film Academy paid special tributes to director Ken Loach, who was feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and French actress

Isabelle Huppert, who received the European Achievement in World Cinema.

Visibly moved by a lengthy standing ovation, Loach praised European film but stressed the difficulty it still has in attracting local auds and suggested the continent look towards America for inspiration: "The U.S. government supports its steel and agricultural industries. Why can’t our politicians protect European film?"

The European Film Awards ceremony took place in the German city of Bochum as part of the celebrations surrounding Germany's Ruhr

Metropolis, which has been selected as European Capital of Culture 2010.

Next year’s show will be held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

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