Some 50 kilometres south of Zurich, the compact, Alpine-flanked Swiss city of Lucerne is famed for lake views and medieval architecture. It’s a fittingly continental setting for the 37th edition of the European Film Awards (EFAs) and a good excuse for amiable gags about yodelling and doom metal. This year’s edition was dominated by Jacques Audiard’s striking trans-musical Emilia Pérez. Sadly, Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, a fictionalised biopic of the Belfast rap trio, converted neither of its nominations into wins.
For the first time, Europe’s most prestigious movie bash was live-streamed by the Cork International Film Festival. The timing was perhaps unfortunate.
In recent years. Ireland has punched far above its weight across various glittering movie shindigs; 2024 is a reality check. There was no Irish involvement in the extensive 15-strong shortlist for best European Film, despite a new rule that includes films shortlisted for the best documentary and animation categories in the section.
At the end of a fiercely competitive year for European titles, Kneecap was the only Irish contender to make the final cut, with nominations in two categories: European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI and European University Film Award.
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Armand, a nervy Norwegian drama set entirely within a parent-teacher meeting and directed by Ullmann Tøndel (the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann), won Discovery. The University award, decided by students from 21 universities across Europe, went to the Romanian teen drama, Three Kilometres to the End of the World.
The European Young Audience Award, the only major cinema award selected by teenagers, was won by The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, a moving portrait of Mats Steen, a Norwegian man born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who lived a rich, secret life through World of Warcraft.
Oscarologists kept especially close tabs on this year’s bash, where Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, competed with Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a double prize-winner at Cannes. Almodóvar is the current EFA record holder for most nominations for best film. Both films are fancied for best picture nominations across the Atlantic. Jacques
The night did not bode well for the Almodóvar film, his first English-language picture, starring Academy Award veterans Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. The Spanish auteur’s 22nd feature, which many hoped would translate into his first Oscar nomination, went home empty-handed.
An out-of-breath Maria Baklava, the Bulgarian star of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Bodies Bodies Bodies, came straight from storm-delayed flights to the stage of the Entlebuch Culture and Congress Center (KKE) to present Audiard with the award for best European director. It was the beginning of a sweep for Emilia Pérez which took home statuettes for best screenplay and best film.
Demi Moore-led horror-comedy The Substance scored the most nominations at this year’s EFAs, with nods in the best film and screenwriting categories, and wins for cinematography and visual effects.
There were understandable whoops throughout the auditorium when Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow, a gorgeous feature-length cartoon about a cat venturing through a flooded world, was named best animated feature.
The EFAs brought together Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche for their fourth screen collaboration following 1992′s Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, 1996′s The English Patient, and Fiennes’s The Return, a brand new adaptation of Odysseus, focusing on the Greek hero’s post-adventure domestic life with Penelope.
Binoche was double-jobbing. As the new president of the European Film Academy, she opened the ceremony in a circumspect mood: “No one apologises any more for committing murders,” said the actor. “Choosing joy is a way to resist the darkness; that’s why we are perhaps here”. She took care to note participating EFA nations. “Our artistic union includes Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Georgia.”
It was a politically charged evening. When West Bank contender No Other Land was announced as the winner of the best documentary, there were cries of “Free Palestine” in the auditorium. Palestinian Hiam Abbass paused to remember the children of Gaza before presenting Jacques Audiard with the best film award.
Fiennes presented Isabella Rossellini with the European achievement in world cinema award, joking about her involvement in dragonfly sex films: namely Green Porno, her nature series on animal sexual behaviour. She manifests the talents of both famous parents, Robert Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, said Fiennes before welcoming the recipient of the ceremony’s longest and loudest applause.
Martin Scorsese, Milla Jovovich, and Nick Cave were among a starry crew paying tribute to Wim Wenders, the former European Academy president and lifetime achievement award winner.
His collaborator Kôji Yakusho got the biggest laugh of the night. The Japanese actor, named best actor at Cannes 2023 for his turn as an academic turned lavatory cleaner in Wenders’s Perfect Days, sent a video with an irresistible offer: “I clean your toilet, boss!”
History was made in the acting categories. aest Actor Abou Sangaré became the first Guinean to win a European Film Award for his heart-rending performance in Souleymane’s Story, a nail-biting account of the life of an undocumented asylum seeker in France. while Karla Sofía Gascón became the first trans woman to win Best European Actress for her work on Emilia Pérez.
The next edition of the EFAs will take place in Berlin in January 2026, a bid to become part of the larger awards season conversation. Ironically, the increasing prominence of Cannes and Venice entrants at the Academy Awards suggests the EFAs need not have budged. The overlap with the prize winners from the planet’s two premiere festivals is striking.
Let’s hope the EFAs aren’t Hollywoodised by the date change. The ceremony remains commendably idiosyncratic and European. A Swiss rowing club pondered the best documentary category; a punk band mulled over the animation entries, and the in-memoriam section was ushered in with a long quote from local boy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Rather appropriately for a country with four official languages – don’t forget Romansh – compere Fernando Tiberini invited all award winners to speak their native languages, making for a pleasing Tower of Babel effect. You don’t see that at the Golden Globes.
The European Film Awards in full
European Film: Emilia Pérez (France), directed by Jacques Audiard, produced by Pascal Caucheteux, Jacques Audiard, Valérie Schermann and Anthony Vaccarello.
European Documentary: No Other Land (Palestine, Norway), directed by Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal, produced by Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal,
European Director: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez.
European Actress: Karla Sofía Gascón in Emilia Pérez.
European Actor: Abou Sangare in Souleymane’s Story.
European Screenwriter: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez.
European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI: Armand (Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden), directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, produced by Andrea Berentsen Ottmar.
European Animated Feature Film: Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis.
European Short Film: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, directed by Nebojsa Slijepcevic’
European Young Audience Award: The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Norway), directed by Benjamin Ree, produced by Ingvil Giske.
Best Cinematography: The Substance (Benjamin Kračun).
Best Visual Effects: The Substance (Bryan Jones, Pierre Procoudine-Gorsky, Chervin Shafaghi, Guillaume Le Gouez).
Best Production Design: The Girl With the Needle (Jagna Dobesz).
Best Original Score: The Girl With the Needle (Frederikke Hoffmeier).
Best Editing: Emilia Pérez (Juliette Welfling).
Best Costume Design: The Devil’s Bath (Tanja Hausner).
Best Make-Up & Hair: When the Light Breaks (Evalotte Oosterop).
Best Sound: Souleymane’s Story (Marc-Olivier Brullé, Pierre Bariaud, Charlotte Butrak, Samuel Aïchoun, Rodrigo Diaz).
European University Film Award: Three Kilometers to the End of the World (director Emanuel Pârvu).
European Lifetime Achievement: Wim Wenders.
European Achievement in World Cinema: Isabella Rossellini.
Eurimages International Co-Production: Labina Mitevska.
