The 37th European Film Awards, Europe’s top cinema honors and one of the first international harbingers for the 2025 awards season has kicked off in Lucerne, Switzerland. The ceremony can be watched live on the European Film Academy website.
Jacques Audiard took the first prize of the night, winning best director for his Oscar favorite, the Spanish-language transgender musical Emilia Pérez. Audiard also snatched the best screenwriting honor, which he dedicated to the late, French-Danish actor Niels Arestrup, who Audiard worked with on films such as The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and A Prophet (2009).
France’s official submission for the Academy Awards in the best international feature category, Emilia Pérez is a strong contender for several categories, including best actress for Spanish star Karla Sofía Gascón, supporting honors for co-stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez and multiple technical categories.
No Other Land, a powerful film about the Israeli government’s systematic, and violent evictions, of Palestinians in the West Bank, won the prize for best documentary.
Accepting the prize via Zoom, Basel Adra, one of the film’s Palestinian directors said it was difficult to celebrate with the ongoing “genocide against my people. How Israel is systemically trying to erase us from our homes.” Yuval Abraham, his Israeli co-director, called for action from European governments to pressure the Israeli government to enter a ceasefire by stopping the supply of weapons to Jerusalem. “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza [at] risk of death, for the sake of the hundreds of Israeli hostages, a ceasefire has to be imposed.”
Flow, Latvia’s Oscar hopeful for best international feature, as well as a best animated feature contender, took the European Film Award for best animated feature. The dialog-free drama follows a big-eyed cat caught in an apocalyptic flood who teams up with a geographically diverse pack of critters to escape.
The prize for best short film went to The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent from Croatian director Nebojsa Slijepcevic, another Oscar frontrunner, which won the Palme d’Or earlier this year. The film dramatizes the Štrpci massacre of 1993, when 24 Bosniak Muslims were pulled off a train by a Serbian paramilitary group and only one man, the Croatian Tomo Buzov, stood up against the attackers.
After the Yugoslav War, said Slijepcevic, Buzov’s story was forgotten “because it didn’t fit into any of the narratives, but now it won’t be.”
The European Young Audience Award went to the animated documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, which premiered at Sundance and was snatched up by Netflix.
Winners in the craft categories were announced ahead of Saturday’s gala, with The Substance picking up trophies for best cinematography and best visual effects, The Girl With the Needle taking best score and best production design, and Emilia Pérez winning best editing, among others.
Iconic German director Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Pina, Perfect Days) received a European lifetime achievement award. The long list of video tributes to Wenders included clips from Martin Scorsese, William Defoe, Nick Cave, and, in a showstopper, Japanese actor Kôji Yakusho, star of Wenders’ Perfect Days, who appeared in character from the film, scrubbing a Toyko public toilet. “Mr. Director! In celebration, I will clean your toilet,” Yakusho quipped. “Prost!”
Receiving his trophy from EFA President Juliette Binoche, Wenders made the first Trump joke of the night. “Thank you, Madame President. So many of us would have liked to call another lady Madame President, but that didn’t happen. If it had, the world would be a better place. But while that other guy pretends to make America great again, this president has a chance to make European cinema shine again.”
Closing his speech, Wenders quoted another U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, calling on the film professionals in the room to ask not what Europe could do for them but what they could do for Europe. “Europe is in trouble right now,” Wenders said, “and I really urge you to think what you can do for Europe because Europe needs you, it needs the film community to produce a more positive, more emotional view of the continent [because] too many people think of it as an economic community, a financial community, but it is an emotional community. It gives us strength and right now we should give it strength.”
Italian actress Isabella Rossellini was honored with the European Achievement in World Cinema award, presented to her by her Conclave co-star Ralph Fiennes.
“She can claim a pretty decent heritage,” said Fiennes, referencing Rossellini’s legendary filmmaking parents, Oscar-winning actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini, before listing off the “extraordinary talents” she has worked with in her career: “David Lynch, Robert Zemeckis, Peter Weir, Abel Ferrara, Guy Madden, Dennis Villeneuve, Alice Rohrwacher and Edward Berger. You might think that they chose her, but for the most part, she chose them.”
“If I had to define the engine, the motor of my life, I would say it has been curiosity and the fuel for this motor has been laughter,” said Rossellini. She took time to thank the babysitters who cared for her children when she was off working. “If it wasn’t for the wonderful work of other women who helped me I couldn’t have the career I have had,” she said. “This is true for all of us women that have careers. My mother said to me the same thing: “If it wasn’t for our Jenny, our nanny, I couldn’t have had the career I had. I am as grateful to her, Jenny, as I am to a director of the caliber of Alfred Hitchcock.”
Macedonian producer and actress Labina Mitevska won this year’s Eurimages International Co-production Award, honoring producers for their contribution to fostering international film collaboration.
See the full list of 2024 European Film Award winners below.
European Film
Bye Bye Tiberias (Bye Bye Tiberiade) (France, Belgium, Palestine, Qatar), directed by Lina Soualem, produced by Jean-Marie Nizan, Guillaume Malandrin & Ossama Bawardi
Dahomey (France, Senegal), directed by Mati Diop, produced by Eve Robin, Judith Lou-Lévy & Mati Diop
Emilia Pérez (France), directed by Jacques Audiard, produced by Pascal Caucheteux, Jacques Audiard, Valérie Schermann & Anthony Vaccarello
Flow (Straume) (Latvia, France, Belgium), directed by Gints Zilbalodis, produced by Matīss Kaža, Gints Zilbalodis, Ron Dyens & Gregory Zalcman
In Limbo (W Zawieszeniu) (Poland), directed by Alina Maksimenko, produced by Filip Marczewski
Living Large (Život k sežrání) (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia), directed by Kristina Dufková, produced by Matej Chlupacek, Agata Novinski & Marc Faye
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 & Hamdan Ballal
Savages (Sauvages) (Switzerland, France, Belgium), directed by Claude Barras, produced by Nicolas Burlet, Laurence Petit, Barbara Letellier, Carole Scotta, Vincent Tavier, Hugo Deghilage, Annemie Degryse & Olivier Glassey
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (France, Belgium, Netherlands), directed by Johan Grimonprez, produced by Daan Milius & Rémi Grellety
Sultana’s Dream (El Sueño de la Sultana) (Spain, Germany, India), directed by Isabel Herguera, produced by Chelo Loureiro, Diego Herguera, Fabian Driehorst, Mariano Baratech & Iván Miñambres
The Room Next Door (Spain), directed by Pedro Almodóvar, produced by Agustín Almodóvar & Esther García
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Danaye Anjir-e Moabad) (Germany, France), directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, produced by Mohammad Rasoulof, Amin Sadraei, Jean-Christophe Simon, Mani Tilgner & Rozita Hendijanian
The Substance (UK, United States, France), directed by Coralie Fargeat, produced by Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner
They Shot the Piano Player (Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Peru), directed by Fernando Trueba & Javier Mariscal, produced by Cristina Huete, Serge Lalou, Sophie Cabon, Bruno Felix, Janneke van de Kerkhoff, Femke Wolting & Humberto Santana
Vermiglio (Italy, France, Belgium), directed by Maura Delpero, produced by Francesca Andreoli, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, Santiago Fondevila Sancet & Maura Delpero
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 & Hamdan Ballal
European Director
Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez
European Actress
Renate Reinsve in Armand
Karla Sofía Gascón in Emilia Pérez
Trine Dyrholm in The Girl With the Needle
Vic Carmen Sonne in The Girl With the Needle
Tilda Swinton in The Room Next Door
European Actor
Franz Rogowski in Bird
Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
Lars Eidinger in Dying
Daniel Craig in Queer
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
Hoard (UK), directed by Luna Carmoon, produced by Loran Dunn, Helen Simmons & Andrew Starke
Kneecap (Ireland, UK), directed by Rich Peppiatt, produced by Patrick O’Neill, Trevor Birney & Jack Tarling
Santosh (UK, France, Germany), directed by Sandhya Suri, produced by Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner, Carole Scotta & Eliott Khayat
The New Year That Never Came (Anul Nou Care N-A Fost) (Romania, Serbia), directed and produced by Bogdan Mureșanu
Toxic (Akiplėša) (Lithuania), directed by Saulė Bliuvaitė, produced by Giedre Burokaite
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