European Film Academy unveils nominees for 2022 European Film Awards

The European Film Academy, which celebrates the best of European Film culture, has announced the nominees for the main categories of the 35th European Film Awards.

The three films leading the nominations this year, each tallying four apiece, are all 2022 Cannes winners: the Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness by Swedish director Ruben Östlund, Close by Belgian director Lukas Dhont, and Holy Spider by Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi.

All three are competing for the Best European Film award, alongside Catalonian-Spanish director Carla Simón’s Golden Bear-winning Alcarràs and Austrian director Maria Kreutzer’s Corsage, which also had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

While Simón’s gentle, sun-drenched drama about family life and loss during the final harvest on the family farm and Kreutzer’s historical drama about the Empress Elisabeth of Austria (brilliantly played by Vicky Krieps) increasingly rebelling against the constraints of her rigorous lifestyle are both worthy nominees, the odds seem strongly in the favour of Östlund’s class warfare comedy. Triangle of Sadness is also nominated in three other categories: European director, European actor (for Zlatko Burić) and European screenwriter (Östlund).

The film is a broad strokes satire that targets the fashion industry, influencer culture, capitalism and the entitlement of the obscenely rich. It is a riot to watch but nonetheless feels scattershot compared to the director’s previous films Force Majeure and The Square, which also won the Palme d’Or in 2017. Still, there’s no denying its comedic credentials and audiences have responded well to the film’s absurdist, borderline Pythonesque moments.

Its status as favourite does face strong competition from Lukas Dhont’s Close, which tells the devastingly tender story of two boys whose friendship is tragically broken (it shared Cannes’ Grand Prix with French director Claire Denis’ Stars At Noon) and Ali Abbasi’s gripping Holy Spider, which is based on the real-life story of an Iranian serial killer whose victims were sex workers. The wonderful Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won Best Actress in Cannes for her performance and is also nominated as Best European Actress alongside Vicky Krieps.

Both Close and Holy Spider are also the entries for their respective countries of Belgium and Denmark in the Academy Awards Best International Film category this year.

It is also worth noting that Venice winner Saint Omer (Silver Lion Grand Jury prize along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award) picked up (only) one nomination for Best European Director for Alice Diop – a deserving nomination and a would-be merited win.

Her stunning feature debut is a nuanced and claustrophobic legal drama which chronicles the real-life trial of a Franco-Senegalese mother who committed infanticide. It has been selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards next year and is hands down one of the most powerful pieces of cinema you’ll see all year.

The 4,400 members of the European Film Academy will now vote for the winners who will be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony on 10 December in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík.

German director Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with the European Lifetime Achievement award, while Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman will be feted with the European Achievement in World Cinema award.

The winners of the Excellence Awards in the categories European Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Make-up & Hair, Original Score, Sound and Visual Effects will be determined by an eight-member jury consisting of representatives of the different arts and crafts and will be announced on 23 November.

The event will be preceded this year by the academy’s inaugural edition of the Month of European Film. Indeed, the European Film Academy has unveiled a new public-facing event which consists of a showcase of European cinema taking place in arthouse theatres and other venues in 35 countries across Europe.

It will kick off on 13 November and run across the four weeks leading up to the European Film Awards on 10 December.

Cinemas involved in the initiatives include France’s Balzac in Paris, Latvia’s Splendid Palace in Riga, the Netherlands’ EYE in Amsterdam, the UK’s Glasgow Film Theatre, Ukraine’s Zhovten Cinema in Kyiv, and the Yorck cinema chain in Berlin for Germany.

The full nominations are as follows:

European Film:

• Alcarràs directed by Carla Simón (Spain/ Italy)

• Close directed by Lukas Dhont (Belgium/ France/ Netherlands)

• Corsage directed by Marie Kreutzer (Austria/ Luxembourg/ Germany/ France)

• Holy Spider directed by Ali Abbasi (Denmark/ Germany/ Sweden/ France)

• Triangle of Sadness directed by Ruben Östlund (Sweden/ Germany/ France/ United Kingdom)

European Documentary:

• A House Made Of Splinters directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark/ Sweden/ Finland/ Ukraine)

• Girl Gang directed by Susanne Regina Meures (Switzerland)

• Mariupolis 2 directed by Mantas Kvedaravičius (Lithuania/ France/ Germany)

• The Balcony Movie (Film Balkonowy) directed by Paweł Łoziński (Poland)

• The March On Rome (Marcia su Roma) directed by Mark Cousins (Italy)

European Director:

• Lukas Dhont for Close

• Marie Kreutzer for Corsage

• Jerzy Skolimowski for Eo

• Ali Abbasi for Holy Spider

• Alice Diop for Saint Omer

• Ruben Östlund for Triangle Of Sadness

European Actress:

• Vicky Krieps in Corsage

• Zar Amir Ebrahimi in Holy Spider

• Léa Seydoux in One Fine Morning

• Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers

• Meltem Kaptan in Rabiye Kurnaz Vs. George W. Bush

European Actor:

• Paul Mescal in Aftersun

• Eden Dambrine in Close

• Elliott Crosset Hove in Godland

• Pierfrancesco Favino in Nostalgia

• Zlatko Burić in Triangle Of Sadness

European Screenwriter:

• Carla Simón & Arnau Vilaró for Alcarràs

• Kenneth Branagh for Belfast

• Lukas Dhont & Angelo Tijssens for Close

• Ali Abbasi & Afshin Kamran Bahrami for Holy Spider

• Ruben Östlund for Triangle Of Sadness

European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI

• 107 Mothers (Cenzorka) directed by Peter Kerekes (Slovakia/ Czech Republic/ Ukraine)

• Love According To Dalva (Dalva) directed by Emmanuelle Nicot (Belgium/ France)

• Other People (Inni Ludzie) directed by Aleksandra Terpińska (Poland/ France)

• Pamfir directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukraine/ France/ Poland/ Germany/ Chile)

• Small Body (Piccolo Corpo) directed by Laura Samani (Italy/ Slovenia/ France)

• Sonne directed by Kurdwin Ayub produced by Ulrich Seidl (Austria)

The European Film Awards 2022 will be celebrated in Reykjavík, in the Harpa Conference and Concert Hall, together with various side events in connection with European film production.