Christoph Waltz Gives an Award for a Change

<--- Oh look. Christoph Waltz, finally tiring of receving awards for Inglourious Basterds, is now giving them out. There he is (left) giving Best Actress to barefoot Sibel Kekilli at Germany's Oscars "The Lolas". I've never seen anyone accepting a Best Actress trophy while barefoot before but I hope to see someone do so sometime real soon.

If you've never heard the name Sibel Kekilli before, please do yourself a favor and rent Fatih Akin's erotic drama Head On (aka Gegen die Wand) She's got thunderclap force in that movie.
The Winners
Picture (Silver), Editing & Score: Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm, a war crime drama
Picture (Bronze) & Actress: When We Leave starring Sibel Kekilli
Supporting Actor: Justus von Dohnnanyi in Men in the City.
Children's Film: Lena Olbrich & Christian Becker's Vorstadtkrokodile which translates to something like Suburban Crocodiles
Documentary: Ernst Ludwig Ganzert and Ulli Pfau's The Heart of Jenin about a Palestinian father who donates his son's organs to Israeli children even though his son was killed by Israeli soldiers.
Lifetime Achievement: writer/producer Bernd Eichinger

But the night's big winner was The White Ribbon

Picture (Gold), Director, Screenplay, Actor (Burghart Klaussner, "The Pastor"), Supporting Actress (Maria-Victoria Dragus, "Klara"), Cinematography, Costumes, Art Direction, Makeup & Sound: Ten (that's right, ten!) statues went to Michael Haneke's Oscar nominee. That's a record. The previous Lola champ (winning nine) was the wonderful Goodbye Lenin! (2003) starring Daniel Brühl which had, like The White Ribbon after it, a very successful run in the international marketplace.

I was surprised to read the Supporting Actress winner. The White Ribbon had many fine small performances but the statue winner was neither the abused daughter (Roxane Duran) nor the humiliated midwife (Susanne Lothar, who was nominated as Best Actress instead). It also wasn't the teacher's sweet girlfriend (Leonie Benesch) or the rich baroness (Ursina Lardi). The winner was the manipulative leader of that creepy flock of school children that may be sabotaging everyone in town. "Forgive us Father."

Back to Sibel to wrap up. We've also never seen a Best Actress Oscar winner sit down on stage after winning. For all their 'I'm going to faint/cry' affectations, nobody actually collapses!