Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland is the film to beat at the 39th European Film Awards. By our count of the European Film Academy’s official nominee lists, the Polish director’s drama picked up 10 nominations, ahead of the Spanish film La Bola Negra with nine and Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord with five.
Sandra Hüller against herself
The most striking line on the list is in European Actress. Hüller is nominated twice, for Fatherland and for Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, an Austria and Germany production that also picked up nods for production design, costumes and Tara Name Doyle’s score. Her rivals are Penélope Cruz for Bunker, Léa Seydoux for Gentle Monster, Renate Reinsve for Fjord and Mathilde Arcel for Woman Unknown.
English-language viewers will spot one familiar face among the actors. Andrew Scott is nominated for Elsinore, the UK film about Ian Charleson’s final Hamlet; we covered its US theatrical release, set for November 20. Javier Bardem (The Beloved) and Swann Arlaud (A Man of His Time) complete the field with Zischler and Stan.
Beyond the big three
France dominates the animation field, with In Waves, Iron Boy, Jim Queen, Lucy Lost and Viva Carmen all nominated. The documentary race includes Naza, Letters from the Silenced Country, Rehearsals for a Revolution, To Hold a Mountain and Whispers in the Woods. Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas gets one nomination, for Alberto Iglesias’s score.
The leaders, category by category
Fatherland, a Poland, Germany, Italy and France co-production, is up for European Film, Director and Screenwriter for Pawlikowski, plus Actress for Sandra Hüller and Actor for Hanns Zischler. Its craft nominations cover cinematographer Łukasz Żal, editing by Pawlikowski and Piotr Wójcik, production design, sound and casting.
La Bola Negra, directed by the duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, matched it nearly everywhere except acting. The Spain and France production is nominated for European Film, Director, Screenwriter (shared with Alberto Conejero), Cinematographer (Gris Jordana), Editor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Sound and Casting Director.
Fjord lands where the headline races are. Mungiu is nominated as director and screenwriter, Reinsve for European Actress and Sebastian Stan for European Actor, on top of the film’s European Film nod.
Directors to watch
The European Director race brings together five names:
- Sandra Wollner, Everytime
- Paweł Pawlikowski, Fatherland
- Cristian Mungiu, Fjord
- Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, La Bola Negra
- Andrey Zvyagintsev, Minotaur
All five are also nominated for European Screenwriter, so the directing and writing races are mirror images of each other this year.
Athens hosts
The winners will be named on January 16, 2027, in Athens, the first time the ceremony has traveled to Southeastern Europe. The show takes place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, with a Welcome Night reception at the Acropolis Museum the evening before.
The academy has already named one honoree: Hiam Abbass will receive the European Achievement in World Cinema award. More awards-season coverage sits in our Entertainment section.
The envelopes open on stage in Athens on January 16, 2027.
Further reading
Image: Strange Traveler, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
