MUMBAI: Michael Haneke‘s The White Ribbon bagged two awards at the European film awards, one for the director and the other for screenwriter.

Accepting his third award of the evening with his producers Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, and Andrea Occhipinti on the stage, Haneke said that he was "completely bowled over" by the recognition. "Perhaps it is difficult for me to show my joy," Haneke averred.

Other popular winners of the evening were Jacques Audiard‘s A Prophet (Une Prophete),that picked up European Actor 2009 for Tahar Rahim and European Film Academy Prox Excellence 2009 for sound design, and Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire, which shared the Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award for Anthony Dod Mantle with Lars von Trier‘s Antichrist.

The audience of 1,400 gave standing ovations to two masters of European cinema - Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda and Ken Loach -and for French actress Isabelle Huppert.

On accepting the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award from the hands of football player-turned-actor Eric Cantona, Loach called on Europe‘s politicians to introduce policies to protect European films and promote their circulation since "large areas of Europe" would not be able to see the films being nominated and honour.