European Film Award nominations for 2021

by Nathaniel R

There's no true leader at the European Film Awards this year with three films (Titane, The Father, and Compartment No 6) tied for the most nominations but there is a leader if you look at individual nominations: Italian master Paolo Sorrentino is up for three prizes himself for Italy's Oscar submission The Hand of God (Film, Director, and Screenplay) so consider that a force going into the Oscar finalist selections. The European Film Awards also have juries that decide on craft awards like Cinematography, Production Design, and the like but they don't have traditional nominations so we won't know the winners for a while yet. 

The nomination list and commentary after the jump...

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European Film Awards long list, Part 1

by Nathaniel R

Celine Sciamma's "Petite Maman" could be up for EFAs this year

The European Film Awards (EFA) don't yet have the same cache as BAFTA or the Oscars. They have a more difficult hurdle to climb to form a recognizable identity. It's much easier to asses just one country's cinema (primarily) as BAFTA and AMPAS do, then determine "bests" from a vast swath of  different cultures, different cinema trends, different languages, and so on. Nevertheless, we think EFA deserves more attention than they get. Last season's big winner Denmark's Another Round was also a hit at the Oscars.

They've recently announced the first of two longlists for the 2021 season from which their 4000 or so members will vote on to choose nominees later in the year. The list follows after the jump...

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EFA Winners: "Another Round" Sweeps

by Nathaniel R

The European Film Awards were held yesterday, mostly virtually, with Denmark's Another Round winning all four of its nominations (Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay). Mads Mikkelsen headlines as a depressed high school teacher who decides to experiment with binge-drinking with three of his closest teacher friends. The funny sad beautifully executed film has a star turn at its center that we hope Oscar will consider in the crowded Best Actor race. We already presumed it a major threat at the Oscars for Best International Feature Film and this should all but erase any doubts that it will be nominated. It will be available to rent online starting December 18th in the US. At the EFA site you can see all the acceptance speeches. Here's the complete list of winners for the 33rd Annual European Film Awards and a couple of more comments...

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EFA Nominees: Denmark's "Another Round" Leads the Pack

by Nathaniel R

Apologies that in this week where we've been doing such a fine job covering international cinema news what will all the Oscar submission daily stuff, that we missed the EFA nominations. "OOPS-HOWD-THAT- HAPPEN?" in all caps. The nominees and commentary are after the jump. If we've written about the film there are links...

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European Film Awards honor Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, and The Favourite

True giants of cinema gathered in Berlin today for the annual European Film Awards. It was honestly a bit overwhelming to see Wim Wenders, Juliette Binoche, Claire Denis, and Pedro Almodóvar all sitting side by side in the front row. How to even imagine the cinema without them? 

In a surreal sort of way, what was happening on stage was even more overwhelming... but for its inexplicable surreality (more on that in a bit) and its time travelling nature.Regarding the latter due to the indifferent nature of release dates across borders the overall champ was The Favourite which had its American awards run a full year ago. 

The winners and more commentary follows.

Costuming goddess Sandy Powell and the producers of The Favourite

FILM The Favourite
COMEDY The Favourite...

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