‘Cold War,’ ‘Happy as Lazzaro,’ ‘Border’ top European Film Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 31st European Film Award have been announced an Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War leads the field with five mentions including Best Film, Best Director, Best European Actor for Tomasz Kot and Best European Actress for Joanna Kulig.

Happy as Lazzaro and Border were just behind with four nominations apiece, both in Best Film. Amazingly, the Best Film category is entirely populated by Cannes premieres and all but Lazzaro are official picks for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. Italy’s Dogman, which also nabbed four nominations, is the country’s pick.

Cold War‘s dominance here isn’t too surprising as Pawlikowski is something of an EFA darling. He’s been nominated SEVEN times, winning five. He and his film are easy favorites here.

Girl, a big Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes and Belgium’s official Oscar entry (which will debut on Netflix soon) earned three nominations: Best Film, Best European Actor for Victor Polster and European Discovery (essentially Best First Film). 

Here is the full list of nominees. Winners will be announced on December 5th. 

Best Film

Border (Sweden)
Cold War (Poland)
Dogman (Italy)
Girl (Belgium)
Happy as Lazzaro (Italy)

Best Comedy

C’est La Vie (France)
Diamantino (Portugal)
Death of Stalin (UK)

Best European Director

Ali Abbasi (Border)
Matteo Garrone (Dogman)
Samuel Maoz (Foxtrot)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro)

Best European Screenwriter

Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklof, and John Ajvide Lindqvist for Border
Matteo Garrone, Ugo Chiti, and Massimo Gaudioso for Dogman
Gustaav Moller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen for The Guilty
Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War
Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro

Best European Actress

Marie Baumer (3 Days in Quiberon)
Halldora Geirhharosdottir (Women at War)
Joanna Kulig (Cold War)
Barbara Lennie (Petra)
Eva Melander (Border)
Alba Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro)

Best European Actor

Jakob Cedergren (The Guilty)
Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince)
Marcello Fonte (Dogman)
Sverrir Gudnason (Borg/McEnroe)
Tomasz Kot (Cold War)
Victor Polster (Girl)

Best European Animated Feature

AAnother Day of Life (Poland/Spain)
Early Man (UK)
The Breadwinner (Ireland)
White Fang (Luxembourg)

Best European Documentary

Bergman – A Year in A Life (Sweden)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (Denmark)
Of Fathers and Sons (Syria/Lebanon/Qatar)
The Silence of Others (Spain)
A Woman Captured (Hungary)

Best European Short Film

Aquaparque (Portugal)
Burkina Brandenburg Komplex (Germany)
The Escape (France)
Graduation ’97 (Ukraine)
I Signed the Petition (UK)
Kapitalists (Belgium)
Kontener (Germany)
Meryem (The Netherlands)
Prisoner of Society (Georgia)
Release the Dogs (France)
Shame (Bulgaria)
Those Who Desire (Spain)
What’s the Damage (UK)
Wildebeest (Belgium)
The Years (Italy)

European Discovery

Girl directed by Lukas Dhont
The Guilty directed by Gustav Moller
One Day (Hungary) directed by Zsófia Szilágyi
Scary Mother (Georgia) directed by Ana Urushadze
Those Who Are Fine (Switzerland) directed by Cyril Schäublin
Touch Me Not (Romania) directed by Adina Pintilie

European University Award

Foxtrot
Happy as Lazzaro
Styx
Tarzan’s Testicles
U – July 22

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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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.

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