Gay films, filmmakers win European awards

European-made films with gay content or gay filmmakers snagged honors last weekend from the European Film Awards in Berlin and the Women in Film and Television Awards, presented in London, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Charlotte Rampling won the EFA for best European actress on Saturday for her turn in Swimming Pool from out French director Francois Ozon. At the same ceremony Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions, which includes gay characters in its ensemble cast, won for best non-European film, beating out more mainstream nominees Finding Nemo; Kill Bill, Volume 1; Mystic River; and Lost in Translation. At the Women in Film and Television ceremony in London on Friday, director Gurinder Chadha earned a "creative originality" award for her worldwide hit, Bend It Like Beckham, in which one of the teen heroine's best friends is a young gay man.