Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's LA PIVELLINA, an Austrian/Italian co-production, has been awarded the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European Film in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival, it was announced today by a jury of four Europa Cinemas exhibitors - the seventh year the Label has been awarded in the section.

LA PIVELLINA will now receive the support of the Europa Cinemas exhibitors who commit themselves to extend the length of its run on screen and additional promotion across the network.

The Europa Cinemas jury for this year's Cannes Festival consisted of Nina Pece (Slovenia) - head of film distribution and director of Otok (Institute for the Development of Film Culture); Nicolas Bruyelle (Belgium) - Programmer at the Cinema Plaza Art à Mons; Rickard Gramfors (Sweden) - Project Manager, Digital Houses, Folkets Hus och Parker and Jean-Marie Virginie (France) - Programmer at the Cinema Jacques Tati à Orsay.

The jury issued the following statement: "Our decision was unanimous. LA PIVELLINA is a film with a big heart - a generous, unpretentious and optimistic look at society's outcasts and makes no moral judgments. The filmmakers' background in documentaries gives the film a real naturalistic credibility, drawing the audience in and engaging them. The acting is superb. We feel the universal themes and the warmth of the cross-generational relationships in the film can have a real impact across Europe with audiences."

Sold internationally by Films Distribution, LA PIVELLINA is directed by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, with the screenplay by Covi and Frimmel as Producer. The cast is Patrizia Gerardi, Asia Crippa, Tairo Caroli and Walter Saabel. Vento Films is the production company.

Abandoned in a park, the two-year-old girl Asia is found by Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park in San Basilio on the outskirts of Rome. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandma in an adjacent container, Patti starts to search for the girl's mother and gives the girl a new home for an uncertain period of time

This marks the seventh year that the Europa Cinemas Label has been awarded at Cannes, and complements the Labels awarded at the Panorama section in Berlin, the Giornate degli Autori section in Venice, and Karlovy Vary.

The success of recent winning films is eloquent testament to the impact that the Label has on a film's profile and its circulation around Europe. Last year's Berlin winner, Götz Spielmann's Academy Award nominated REVANCHE has had successful releases in ten territories. The Cannes winner from 2008, Bouli Lanners' ELDORADO enjoyed great success in Belgium, France and Italy with Germany and the Netherlands to follow this year. Venice 2008 winner Uberto Pasolini's MACHAN had a solid opening in Italy, with releases set for France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Looking further back, Anton Corbijn's CONTROL, the Cannes winner from 2007, has been released in 20 countries around Europe, and Andrzej Jakimowski's TRICKS (Venice 2007) has won prizes at 6 international Festivals and has been sold in more than 20 countries.

Founded in 1992, the Europa Cinemas network now consists of a remarkable 1945 screens in 758 cinemas in 439 cities in 43 countries. Europa Cinemas' aim is to support the programming and visibility of European films outside their country of origin, and to foster initiatives aimed at encouraging younger audiences to develop their interest in European films and cultural diversity. Since 2004, Europa Cinemas has been extending its film theatre network outside Europe, particularly in Asia, South America and around the Mediterranean.

Previous winners of the Europa Cinemas Label are:

Cannes/Directors' Fortnight
2003:                The Mother (Roger Michell, UK)
                        Kitchen Stories (Bent Hamer, Norway/Sweden)
2004:                In the Battlefields / Dans les champs de bataille (Danielle Arbid, France / Belgium / Lebanon)
2005:                La Moustache (Emmanuel Carrère, France)
2006:                12:08 East of Bucharest/A Fost sau n-a fost ? (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania)
2007:                Control (Anton Corbijn, UK)
2008:                Eldorado (Bouli Lanners, Belgium)

Berlin/Panorama
2005:                Live and Become / Radu Mihaileanu, France/Belgium/Israel)
Cockles and Muscles / Crustacés et Coquillages
(Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau, France)
2006:                Tough Enough / Knallhart (Detlev Buck, Germany)
2007:                El Camino de los Ingleses / Summer Rain (Antonio Banderas, Spain)
2008:                Revanche (Götz Spielmann, Austria)
2009:                Welcome (Philippe Lioret, France)
Nord (Rune Denstad Langlo, Norway)

Venice/Venice Days
2004:                Darwin's Nightmare / Le Cauchemar de Darwin (Hubert Sauper, Austria/France/Belgium)
2005:                Le Petit Lieutenant (Xavier Beauvois, France)
2006:                Dark Blue Almost Black / Azul Oscuro Casi Negro (Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, Spain)
2007:                Tricks / Sztuczki (Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland)
2008:                Machan / Uberto Pasolini, UK/Germany)
           
Karlovy Vary (Main Competition and East of the West section)
2006:                Frozen City / Valkoinen kaupunki (Aku Louhimies, Finland)
2007:                The Class / Klass (Ilmar Raag, Estonia)
2008:                Bahrtalo! Good Luck! (Róbert Lakatos, Hungary)

Europa Cinemas is supported by the MEDIA, Euromed Audiovisual II, programmes of the European Commission (Brussels), CNC (France),  FFA (Berlin), Eurimages (Council of Europe, Strasbourg), French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs (Paris).