Berlin 2013: 'The Broken Circle Breakdown' Wins Best European Film

BERLIN -- Felix van Groeningen's The Broken Circle Breakdown has won the Best European Film honor from the Europa Cinemas Label, an association of European art house cinemas.

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The prize, awarded to the best European film screening in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, has previously gone to such titles as Sally El Hosanini's My Brother the Devil (2012) and Feo Aladag's When We Leave (2010).

The Broken Circle Breakdown is the story of the unlikely love between a romantic atheist and a religious realist whose beliefs, and love for one another, are tested when their daughter becomes terminally ill.

THR’s Ravid Rooney said of the film: “Higher on commercial crowd appeal than much of the festival and art house fare the Berlinale side-sections tend to offer, the gritty three-hankie film has already proven a hit in domestic release."

In its statement, the Europa Cinemas jury praised van Groeningen as "a real filmmaker. This is a beautiful and original way of looking at a mother and father’s relationship with their terminally sick daughter. We especially liked the cinematography, the non-linear structure of the story, and the fact that he avoids easy emotional manipulation while dealing with a tough subject."

The Europa Cinemas Network will now promote The Broken Circle Breakdown across its European cinema network and provide incentives and marketing materials for exhibitors to help extend the film's on-screen run.

The Broken Circle Breakdown is being sold worldwide by The Match Factory.