Winners at the 2006 European Film Awards

Held as scheduled in Warsaw, Polandia, the 2006 European Film Awards bestowed a number of honors to notable film figures and features Saturday, December 2 based on votes from 1,700 members of European Film Academy.

Coming out as the big winner is Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" as it triumphantly swept five prizes, including Best European Director and Best European Actress for Penelope Cruz. Despite this attainment, however, it sadly lost the most coveted title of Best European Film to "The Lives of Others" which won three other categories as well, notably that of Best European Actor for lead star Ulrich Muehe.

Another best movie nominee "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" secured an award in cinematography with titles like "The Science of Sleep" and "13 Tzameti" also scoring one honor at the event, the former receiving European Film Academy Award for An Artistic Contribution while the latter being named European Discovery 2006.

Other award recipients were director Roman Polanski who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award and British film producer Jeremy Thomas who got honored with European Achievement in World Cinema - Prix Screen International. For complete list of the winners, do check it out at http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/Winners.html.