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)