The European Parliament LUX Prize is a prize given to a competing film by the European Parliament. Introduced in 2007, it is named after the unit of illuminance, "lux", which is Latin for "light". The objective of the LUX Prize is to illuminate the public debate on European integration and to facilitate the diffusion of European films in the European Union. In order to support the European film industry and help the most significant European productions circulate beyond their national market, the European Parliament LUX Film Prize subtitles the 3 competing films into 24 official languages of the European Union and screens them in all the 28 EU countries during the LUX Film Days. In doing so, the European Parliament supports cultural diversity, as it brings films to audiences across Europe and encourages debate on the issues they raise. The award is a tool that shows the complexity of European identity, as it interprets and presents the realities of European successes and challenges.
Award process
Selection criteria
Films to be selected have to meet following criteria:
Illustrates the universality of European values and the diversity of European culture, bringing insights into the debate on the process of building Europe
For the first edition of the prize, three films were shortlisted by a 17-member panel composed mainly of people working in the cinematic professions who were appointed by the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee. Each film is shown nine times within the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, in a 90-seat cinema room specially conceived and built for this purpose.
Selection and voting
Awards
The producers of the ten shortlisted films are required to provide digital copies in the form of DVDs, Vimeo link, or OpenDCP for the members of the European Parliament. In 2015, the shortlisted Son of Saul was disqualified when the production team refused to provide this fearing from these copies being pirated.
The prize
The LUX Prize consists of assistance in kind in the form of subtitling and video-to-film transfer of the winning film in the 24 official EU languages. In the case that the winning film has already been sold for projection in cinemas in some countries and subtitled for the purpose, the nature of the prize will be determined by agreement between the European Parliament and the film's appointed representatives. The trophy forming the LUX Prize's visual identity is created by the Belgian artist Jocelyne Coster and inspired by a representation of the Tower of Babel, the symbol also used by the European Parliament to indicate multilingualism and cultural diversity united in a single place and with a single goal. The trophy is presented in the plenary in Strasbourg, France to the laureate by the Parliament President in front of the MEPs, and representatives from the other films in competition.
