The European Film Academy (EFA) has set up a new European Film Heritage department to celebrate the rich and diverse film heritage of Europe. In light of this year’s 35th European Film Awards, a list of the ‘Treasures of European Film Culture’ has been created, including 35 places of a symbolic nature for European cinema, places of historical value that need to be maintained and protected not just now but also for generations to come. Among the places – also Mežaparks Great Bandstand as a reference to Juris Podnieks’ film Homeland (1990).
The European Film Academy is broadening its scope and embracing European cinema from the classics to the contemporary to celebrate the rich and diverse film heritage of Europe. This will, of course, include the work of the honorary award recipients, such as the European Lifetime Achievement and the European Achievement in World Cinema awards, going in 2022 to Margarethe von Trotta (1942) and Elia Suleiman (1960) respectively
The European Film Heritage department will be led by film journalist and former head of the EFA Media department Pascal Edelmann. As a first step, the European Film Academy has been building up a pan-European film heritage network, uniting cinematheques, film archives and institutions to share information on anniversaries of filmmakers, films, institutions, or specific themes relevant to the cinema history in the various European countries and regions. The current list includes Trevi Fountain in Rome that starred in Federiko Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960), Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam-Babelsberg - the cradle of German film production since the early 20th century, Centro Buñuel in Calanda, Spain and Lochailort Church in Scotland where episodes of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (1996) were shot. In this list Latvia is represented by Mežaparks Great Bandstand – as a symbol from Juris Podnieks’ documentary film Homeland (1990), where the period of the National Awakening in the three Baltic countries as well as the singing revolutions’ way to freedom has been depicted in an emotional manner.
From now onwards, the European Film Academy aims to actively connect various initiatives and make them much more widely known among lovers of European cinema. Full list of the Treasures of European Film Culture can be found on the EFA website https://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/activity/treasures-of-film-culture/