{"id":438755,"date":"2026-02-22T00:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438755\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:06:09","slug":"irish-uk-biopic-of-jazz-pianist-bill-evans-wins-prestigious-award-at-berlin-film-festival-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438755\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish-UK biopic of jazz pianist Bill Evans wins prestigious award at Berlin Film Festival \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody digs Bill Evans, particularly the Berlin<\/a> Film Festival.<\/p>\n

The Irish-UK biopic on the jazz legend took the Silver Bear for director Grant Gee on Saturday night, his feature film debut impressing a jury headed by German director Wim Wenders as much as critics and audiences.<\/p>\n

Gee took to the stage at a gala event looking amused \u2013 and torn \u2013 by his glittering prize for Everybody Digs Bill Evans. \u201cWell this is lovely, also slightly lonesome,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He explained to the audience how most of the cast and crew were at the Dublin International Film Festival screening.<\/p>\n

Backed largely by Screen Ireland<\/a>, Gee said his feature film debut had been made \u201cquite easy really\u201d because of the talented cast and crew \u2013 with even the Irish weather cooperating.<\/p>\n

\"AndersAnders Danielsen Lie (at the piano) as Bill Evans in a scene from Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Photograph: Cowtown Pictures\/Hot Property BE <\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a bit of New York and a bit of Florida in the late spring in west Cork<\/a>, against all the odds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ilker \u00c7atak\u2019s Yellow Letters won the Golden Bear at the 76th edition of the Berlinale.<\/p>\n

German actor Sandra H\u00fcller won the Silver Bear for best leading performance for her role in Rose. Lance Hammer\u2019s Queen at Sea won the Silver Bear Jury Prize as well as best supporting performance for Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay.<\/p>\n

The moody and mysterious biopic of Evans \u2013 who rose to fame playing with Miles Davis \u2013 is shot largely in black-and-white.<\/p>\n

At the film\u2019s heart is a mesmerising turn from Anders Danielsen Lie as the introverted, heroin-using jazz pianist in a slow-burn performance that tips into self-immolation.<\/p>\n

Director Gee thanked Danielsen Lie for giving \u201ca lot of himself\u201d in his performance.<\/p>\n

Gee also singled out producer Janine Marmot of Hot Property Films for her \u201cimmense tenacity\u201d, persevering with the production for a decade after optioning the novel Intermission by Welsh writer Owen Martell.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Irish actor Valene Kane at a press conference for Everybody Digs Bill Evans during the Berlin Film Festival. Photograph: Fabian Sommer\/EPA <\/p>\n

The elegant, minimalist screenplay from Adam and Paul writer Mark O\u2019Halloran<\/a> plots a tragic decline once described by a friend of Evans as \u201dthe longest suicide in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Newry native Valene Kane delivers an intense yet fragile performance as Evans\u2019s tragic on-off girlfriend, and fellow heroin user, Ellaine Schultz. <\/p>\n

Laurie Metcalf and Bill Pullman give career-best supporting performances as the musician\u2019s puzzled parents.<\/p>\n

At the height of his fame, Evans deconstructed Leonard Bernstein<\/a> showtunes to their harmonic bones while retaining their musical essence. <\/p>\n

Director Grant Gee succeeds in the other direction, reconstituting a plausible essence of Evans the person without betraying the musician he hid behind.<\/p>\n

\"BerlinaleBerlinale Festival director Tricia Tuttle, Alan Maher, Bill Pullman, Janine Marmot, Barry Ward, Valene Kane, Grant Gee, Mark O’Halloran, Anders Danielsen Lie, Katie McGrath, Albert Berger and guests attend the Everybody Digs Bill Evans premiere during the Berlin Film Festival. Photograph: Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Film industry bible Variety said the \u201cnimble, restrained but quietly plangent\u201d film elicits \u201cconsiderable beauty and feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Like Wenders and Gee on Saturday night, Variety singled out cinematographer Piers McGrail\u2019s striking monochrome cinematography for boosting the dramatic appeal, allowing \u201cIreland\u2019s County Cork . . . stand in for both New York City and costal Florida\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter praised the feature for its \u201cartful direction, nimble structure, visual richness and impeccable performances\u201d that delivered \u201csomething full-bodied, compelling and deeply affecting, its melancholy beauty lingering long after the end credits roll\u201d.<\/p>\n

Indiewire drew attention to how the film shrugged off music biopic cliches for a tight focus on the contradictions and countervailing forces on one period of Evans\u2019s life: \u201cIt\u2019s a riff, played with real skill, lingering on dissonance rather than release.\u201d<\/p>\n

Screen Daily said watching Everybody Digs Bill Evans \u201cis a little like being in a darkroom and seeing the image of a creative artist gradually emerge\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Danielsen Lie, Evans remained a mystery even after bringing him to life on-screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this big contrast between the order, the classicism, the refinement, the pureness of his art,\u201d he said, \u201cand the total chaos of his life. And he was kind of constantly rationalising his own problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danielsen Lie said he was \u201cso happy and proud\u201d of a film which, he added, Gee did\u00a0\u201csuch a wonderful job directing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Producer Marmot\u00a0said the entire team were \u201coverwhelmed and thrilled\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery independent film is a combination of will power and patchwork funding,\u201d she said, \u201cand we\u2019re enormously grateful to our funders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow producer Alan Maher called the film\u2019s selection in Berlin an \u201cincredible honour\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re also deeply grateful to F\u00eds \u00c9ireann\/Screen Ireland, whose support was instrumental in bringing this film to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everybody digs Bill Evans, particularly the Berlin Film Festival. The Irish-UK biopic on the jazz legend took the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[8797,6491,17713,159771,96,145,159775,159773,159772,64698,159774,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-438755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-cork","11":"tag-dublin-international-film-festival","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-hollywood-la","15":"tag-leonard-bernstein","16":"tag-mark-o-halloran","17":"tag-miles-davis","18":"tag-screen-ireland-fis-eireann","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}