01/04/2021 - The three finalists for the LUX Audience Award kick off their annual tour around Europe with several online screenings

After introducing a series of videos featuring different European stars and personalities encouraging people to vote (see news), the first edition of the LUX Audience Award, presented by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, is relaunching the LUX Film Days. This initiative will see the three finalists screened across Europe at different events, as wide as possible given the pandemic, and aiming to make the films available to a large audience during the Watch&Vote period, unfolding until 23 May.

Despite all the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the three selected films (Another Round [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Thomas Vinterberg, Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Alexander Nanau and Corpus Christi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bartosz Bielenia
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile] by Jan Komasa) will be touring the continent over the next couple of months. The LUX Film Days 2021 officially kicked off in Germany last week, with online screenings of both Collective and Corpus Christi taking place through the LUX Virtual Cinema platform (accessible on Festival Scope), followed by debates with the director of Collective, various experts and MEPs, organised in collaboration with the European Parliament Liaison Offices in Germany. Similarly, they also kicked off in Netherlands with Collective and Corpus Christi available online in cooperation with Cinetree.nl

As of this week, the LUX finalists are moving up to the Baltics, where online screenings of the three nominated titles are scheduled between 29 March and 11 April in Latvia and Estonia. Several countries will follow in the upcoming weeks, allowing audiences in those territories to watch the films through the LUX Virtual Cinema — in countries including Belgium, France, Poland, Hungary — or theatrically like in mid-April in Cyprus — or through other commercial streaming platforms like in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

If the situation allows it, the LUX Audience Week will take place between 11 and 13 May, combining physical screenings of the three films in theatres, simultaneous events, and live-streamed debates in the presence of the directors. All information about future screenings, both physical and online, are be regularly updated here.

When the voting period will be over on 23 May, the winner will be selected based on the highest average rating from the European public and the Members of the European Parliament, where the internal voting period is also underway. The winner will eventually be unveiled at the LUX Award Ceremony, which will take place on 9 June, during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.