"Pain and Glory" leads the European Film Award Nominations
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 9:35AM by Nathaniel R
The European Film Awards will be held in Berlin in just one month (December 7th) and big names are nominated: Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Colman, Roman Polanski, and more. But the question is who will actually attend and who will win? The Oscar submitted titles from Spain (Pain and Glory) and Italy (The Traitor) lead the nominations along with Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy from France. Almodóvar is of course an old favourite of the EFAs. With the Pain & Glory nominations he's now up to 22 EFA nominations (he's won 6 times plus received a special honor). His movies have won the top prize twice (All About My Mother and Talk To Her) while Volver won an "audience" version of Best Film, too.
A full list of nominations with more comments is after the jump...
European Film
An Officer and a Spy (France/Italy)
Les Misérables (France) - also an Oscar submission
Pain and Glory (Spain) - also an Oscar submission
System Crasher (Germany) - also an Oscar submission
The Favourite (UK/Ireland) - last year's Oscars
The Traitor (Italy/France/Germany/Brazil) - also an Oscar submission
Unfortunately the French lesbian costume drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire missed the top category despite its obvious brilliance but they honored it with Director, Actress, and Screenplay nominations nonetheless.
European Director
Celine Sciamma with her Portrait of a Lady stars at Cannes
Pedro Almodóvar – Pain and Glory
Marco Bellocchio – The Traitor
Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
Roman Polanski – An Officer and a Spy
Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Sciamma is the only female director nominated but her film missed the top category.
European Documentary
For Sama (UK/US)
Honeyland (North Macedonia)
Putin’s Witnesses (Latvia/Switzerland/Czech Republic)
Selfie (France/Italy)
The Disappearance of My Mother (Italy/US)
We'll have to wait and see how many of these end up on the Documentary eligibiity list in the US but Honeyland and For Sama have both been doing spectacularly well in early buzz / awardage so there's a good chance we'll see them on the 15 wide documentary finalist list with Oscar.
European Actress
System Crasher
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Trine Dyrholm – Queen of Hearts
Adèle Haenel & Noémie Merlant - Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Viktoria Miroshnichenko – Beanpole
Helena Zengel - System Crasher
An amazing list of names. Presumably TFE readers are already hip to the brilliance of Colman, Dyrholm, and Haenel but see Miroshnichenko who is indelible in Beanpole when you get a chance. We haven't seen System Crasher yet, Germany's Oscar submission, but we'll keep trying to find it. Helena Zengel is just 11 years old but her career is already going superbly. Next up for the little German actress is a co-leading part in the Tom Hanks picture News of the World.
European Actor
Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory
Jean Dujardin – An Officer and a Spy
Pierfrancesco Favino – The Traitor
Levan Gelbakhiani – And Then We Danced
Alexander Scheer – Gundermann
Ingvar E. Sigurdsson – A White, White Day
This list fills us with such joy! Banderas is of course deserving of all the honors for his career-best work in Almodóvar's latest but we're even happier to see Levan Gelbakhiani and Ingvar E Sigurdsson here since we didn't expect them but they're both brilliant in their films. We reviewed A White White Day at TIFF.
European Screenplay
An Officer and a Spy
Pedro Almodóvar – Pain and Glory
Marco Bellocchio, Valia Santella, Ludovica Rampoldi – The Traitor
Robert Harris, Roman Polanski – An Officer and a Spy
Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini, Alexis Manenti – Les Misérables
Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Poor Portrait... in most years it would have easily been France's Oscar submission but people really loved Les Miserables as well. Timing is everything with awards.
European Comedy
Ditte & Louise (Denmark)
Tel Aviv on Fire (Luxembourg/France/Israel/Belgium)
The Favourite (UK/Ireland)
We haven't heard of Ditte & Louise until now so we'll have to keep an eye out. Tel Aviv on Fire is Luxembourg's Oscar submission despite being an Israeli film and it did very well in US arthouse release (over half a million already) so it might be a surprise on Oscar's 10 wide finalist list because people seem to really enjoy it.
European Animated Feature Film
Swallows of Kabul
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (Spain/Netherlands)
I Lost My Body (France)
Marona's Fantastic Tale (Romania/France/Belgium)
The Swallows of Kabul (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland)
All four of these films are in the mix competing for Oscar nominations this year for the usually Disney/Pixar dominatined Best Animated Feature. The American competitors this year are mostly sequels so we're wondering if there isn't actually room for two foreign films this year in Best Animated.
European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI
ANIARA (Sweden)
Atlantics, Mati Diop (France/Senegal/Belgium)
Blind Spot (Norway)
Irina (Bulgaria)
Les Misérables - (France)
Ray & Liz (UK)
A debut film prize. Atlantics and Les Misérables are also hoping to become Oscar nominees for Best International Feature.
European Short Film
Dogs Barking at Birds
Dogs Barking at Birds (Portugal)
Reconstruction (Czech Republic)
The Christmas Gift (Romania/Spain)
The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady (France/Portugal)
Watermelon Juice (Spain)
People's Choice Award (previously announced and filled with last year's pictures)
Reader Comments (21)
Leads nothing, that headline is misleading
Somebody explain me why this is unanimously considered Banderas best work.
Is it the grey hair?
Between this and Deerskin, Dujardin is having a hell of a year!
definitely the grey hair, Peggy!
Super Hot men always get extra credits for aging.
"His only film to win the top prize at the EFAs is Volver (2006), though."
???
"Volver" did not win but "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her" did.
@Mike in Canada: And I thought the deerskin jacket was made up fiction for Dujardin’s guest on the tv series “Call My Agent”. Weird. Those agents don’t fool around.
Someone -- yes, you're right. apologies. fixed. I was lookin gat Pedro's awards forgetting that his brother is the one who wins "best film" since he's the producer.
Saw P&G last night. Loved it. Think Pedro would be an Oscar director nominee if it wasn’t such a strong year. Same with the lead actors in play this year - many of which would be worthy nominees in weaker years.
I just saw "Pain and Glory" and yes Bandera's gives an award worthy performance - and not not just for the grey hair
"Pain and Glory" is a brilliant film and deserves all the awards. Banderas' performance is extraordinary.
Pain and Glory is an Otto e Mezzo for (old) queens. Let them have it.
In terms of fuckabilty, Pierfrancesco Favino goes first and Dujardin second.
Is the two actresses fr Portrait of a Lady on Fire jointly nominated as an entity?? So if Portrait wins best actress, it will be a win for both of them??
Sidenote: the backlash for Polanski came immediately after the nom, a French actress accused him o violent rape back in 1975.
Its sad but i tink Banderas chances o an Oscar nom is declining by the days, w Eddie Murphy, DeNiro n Pryce chances r rising stock. Heard he can't campaign in these 2 crucial mths due to a directing committment in Spain. Timing IS everything indeed!!
@Claran. Yes, so far, when two (or more) performers are nominated in the same category for the same movie, in case of victory, they jointly win. Happened already in 1998 (Élodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier for The Dreamlife of Angels) and in 2002 (all 8 actresses from 8 Women). In the Best Actor category, a joint nomination happened 3 times (in 2001 for Last Orders, in 2008 for Flame & Citron and in 2012 for Intouchables) but never resulted in a win.
@marco70go Thx for the info!
Is it me or PAIN AND GLORY, THE FAVOURITE, AN OFFICER AND A SPY and THE TRAITOR all lead the European Film Awards with 4 nominations each?
I know American critics didn't go for AN OFFICER AND A SPY, but as an European, I loved the movie! It's my pick for Best European Film and Best Screenplay... I just don't predict it to win Best Director because THE TRAITOR is masterclass directing craft and I really want/think Best Director goes to Bellocchio.
Here for Viktoria Miroshnichenko in Beanpole -- I love 'performances' like these because it comes closest to naturalism; no showboating, just giving us the heart and soul of their character without a need for big scenes to show range. Beanpole is Viktoria Miroshnichenko's debut role and I liken her performance to another wonderful turn from Anamaria Marinca in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Same with Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan in Beyond the Hills and yes, Yalitza Aparicio in Roma.
Ed -- They all did, but Nathaniel wrote whatever the fuck he wanted. Respect his bubble.
Totally misleading headline, what a fucking shame!
It does not matter critics and audiences and even awards reception... and that this site and Goldderby still consider Pain and Glory in the running for something more than International Film and Banderas... at Awards Daily, Banderas is listed as alternate/longshot and nothing about Score, Screenplay, Direction, Cinematography or Picture itself. Or even Cruz for Supporting, which still may happen.
I think it is going to end with 2 to 4 nominations (Actor and International, and then maybe Original Screenplay and Score) but if really loved, Cruz, Director, Cinematography, Film Editing (it really deserves this one) and Picture could follow. This is Almodovar's 8 1/2
I think is Almodovar' s 3 and a half . Borderline . Amenabar for the win.