38th European Film Awards: ‘Sentimental Value’ Wins Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress

Erik Anderson January 17, 2026

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value won Best European Film at the 38th European Film Awards, which took place Saturday in Berlin.

The film also won Best European Director, Best European Screenwriter for Trier and Eskil Vogt, Best European Actor for Stellan Skarsgård, Best European Actress for Renate Reinsve and Best European Composer (Original Score) for Hania Rani.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi, nominated for Best European Director and Best European Screenwriter for It Was Just an Accident, opened the ceremony, where he was met with a standing ovation, ahead of the ceremony to read a statement about the dire situation in his home country. Decrying the violence of the regime in Tehran, and the massacre of anti-government protestors, he called on the world to speak out and take action.

“This is not just the pain of one country if the world does not respond to this blatant violence today. Not only Iran but the entire world is at risk,” he said. “Violence left unanswered becomes normalized and when it become normalized, it’s spread become contagious. When the truth is crushed in one place, freedom suffocates everywhere. Then no-one is safe. Anywhere in the world, not in Iran, not in Europe, not in America… that is precisely why today as filmmakers and artists more than ever, if we are disappointed with politicians, we must at least must refuse to remain silent because silence in a time of crime is not neutrality silence, silence is a participation in darkness.”

Liv Ullman was the recipient of the European Lifetime Achievement award. The two-time Oscar-nominated Norwegian actress and director, best known for1970s Ingmar Bergman masterpieces Face to Face, Cries and Whispers and Scenes From a Marriage, used the opportunity to take a jab at Trump, “I’m Norwegian,” Ullmann said. “We gave a Nobel Prize to somebody who deserved it, and suddenly that Nobel Prize is going to someone else … It is so strange. And that is why I’m happy, specifically now, because I know that in Norway we have laws that say: If you misuse a Nobel Prize, we take it away from you. So, somebody in the United States may be very disappointed. He will lose it. He just got it.”

Alice Rohrwacher, the Italian director of La Chimera, Futura, and Happy as Lazzaro was honored with the European Achievement in World Cinema Award.

Here is the complete list of winners.

Best European Film

It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value – WINNER
Sirāt
Sound of Falling
The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best European Director

Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia
Oliver Laxe, Sirāt
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Mascha Schilinski, Sound of Falling
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value – WINNER

Best European Actor

Sergi López, Sirāt
Mads Mikkelsen, The Last Viking
Toni Servillo, La grazia
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value – WINNER
Idan Weiss, Franz

Best European Actress

Leonie Benesch, Late Shift
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Duse
Léa Drucker, Case 137
Vicky Krieps, Love Me Tender
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value – WINNER

Best European Screenwriter

Santiago Fillol and Oliver Laxe, Sirāt
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter, Sound of Falling
Paolo Sorrentino, La grazia
Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value – WINNER

European Casting Director

Nadia Acimi, Luís Bértolo, & María Rodrigo – Sirāt – WINNER
Karimah El-Giamal and Jacqueline Rietz, Sound of Falling
Yngvill Kolset Haga and Avy Kaufman, Sentimental Value

European Cinematographer

Manu Dacosse, The Stranger
Fabian Gamper, Sound of Falling
Mauro Herce, Sirāt – WINNER

European Composer (Original Score)

Jerskin Fendrix, Bugonia
Michael Fiedler and Eike Hosenfeld, Sound of Falling
Hania Rani, Sentimental Value – WINNER

European Costume Designer

Michaela Horáčková Hořejší, Franz
Sabrina Krämer, Sound of Falling – WINNER
Ursula Patzak, Duse

European Editor

Cristóbal Fernández, Sirāt – WINNER
Toni Froschhammer, Die My Love
Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Bugonia

European Make-up & Hair Artist

Gabriela Poláková, Franz
Irina Schwarz and Anne-Marie Walther, Sound of Falling
Torsten Witte, Bugonia – WINNER

European Production Designer

Laia Ateca, Sirāt – WINNER
James Price, Bugonia
Jørgen Stangebye Larsen, Sentimental Value

European Sound Designer

Johnnie Burn, Bugonia
Laia Casanovas, Sirāt – WINNER
Gwennolé Le Borgne, Marion Papinot, Lars Ginzel, Elias Boughedir, & Amal Attia – The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best European Animated Feature Film

Arco – WINNER
Dog of God
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake
Tales from the Magic Garden

Best European Documentary

Afternoons of Solitude
Fiume o morte! – WINNER
Riefenstahl
Songs of Slow Burning Earth
With Hasan in Gaza

European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI

Little Trouble Girls by Urška Djukić
My Father’s Shadow by Akinola Davies Jr.
On Falling by Laura Carreira – WINNER
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies by Murat Fıratoğlu
Sauna by Mathias Broe
Under the Grey Sky by Mara Tamkovich

Best European Short Film

Being John Smith
City of Poets – WINNER
L’Avance
Man Number 4
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing

European Young Audience Award

Arco
I Accidentally Wrote a Book
Siblings – WINNER

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.