Music Box Films’ ‘Ida’ wins big at European Film Awards

A film with a Chicago connection received a big award over the weekend — giving its Oscar prospects a nice boost.

Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida,” about a novitiate nun in Poland in the 1960s, won the best film at the European Film Awards ceremony in Riga, Latvia, on Saturday night. The EFA is considered Europe’s top cinema honor and gives “Ida” a push as Poland’s candidate for the Academy Awards in February. The film also received a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign language film last week.

The stark and critically acclaimed black and white movie was produced by Chicago’s Music Box Films. Along with winning best film at the EFA’s, Pawlikowski won the best director award and shared the best screenplay honor with his “Ida” co-writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The movie’s cinematographers, Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zai, won their category.

On top of all that, “Ida” also won the people’s choice award, voted on by European moviegoers.