For 38 years the European Film Awards have offered a more meritorious form of recognition than the Oscars, their flashier US cousins. This year’s honourees, in Berlin on Saturday night, include such adventurous works as Óliver Laxe’s postapocalyptic thriller Sirat, Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident, and Dog of God, a Latvian animated horror comedy featuring a “historical” werewolf and Satan’s testicles.
The biggest winner, taking six prizes, including that for best film, is Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, a tale of a Norwegian film-maker’s awkward interactions with his unhappy family.
The 2026 bash marks a gamble for Europe’s pre-eminent movie gongs, as they have switched from their traditional pre-Christmas slot into the bustle of peak awards season, between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
It’s a big move for a big organisation: the European Film Academy now has more than 5,400 members, from more than 50 countries. Regardless of date, the awards retain a European character, from beautifully curated montages by the Irish artist and writer Mark Cousins to an appearance by Marlene Dietrich’s hat.
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Many attendees are still at the bar when the 10-minute call is announced at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, or House of World Cultures. Ninety minutes into proceedings, the academy’s chief executive, Matthijs Wouter, introduces a half-hour booze break. The returning audience is enlivened by fake snowfall in the auditorium. They later receive a potato each, in honour of the late French director Agnès Varda, who often referenced the tubers in her work. You don’t see that in Hollywood.
Ahead of a politically charged ceremony, Mike Downey, the outgoing chair of the academy, cites the organisation’s keen “sense of social and political responsibility”. Panahi follows with a warning that “silence is participation in darkness”.
The Iranian director, who in December was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of creating propaganda against the political system, speaks about the “normalisation of violence” in his native country and beyond. “When the truth is crushed in one place, freedom suffocates everywhere,” he says. “Then no one is safe anywhere in the world. Not in Iran. Not in Europe. Not in America.”
David Bennent, the former child star of The Tin Drum, a German classic from 1979, carefully evokes violence against children in Israel on October 7th, 2023, and in Gaza.
The prizes warm to the theme. On Falling, Laura Carreira’s searing indictment of wage slavery at an Amazon-like warehouse, takes home the discovery award. Palestine is represented in several categories, including nods for Kamal Aljafari’s documentary With Hasan in Gaza, Kaouther Ben Hania’s feature The Voice of Hind Rajab and the short films Man Number 4 and The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing.
Juliette Binoche, the president of the European Film Academy, pays extravagant tribute to the actor, director and Ingmar Bergman collaborator Liv Ullmann. “Thank you for being so alive,” the French star says.
Ullman, receiving the European lifetime achievement award, talks about movies as runes and takes a swipe at Donald Trump. “I’m Norwegian,” she says. “We gave the Nobel Prize to someone … and then it goes to someone else?”
Alice Rohrwacher lifts the night’s second career acknowledgment, the award for European achievement in world cinema.
As expected, Stellan Skarsgard is named best European actor for his turn as the problematic patriarch in Sentimental Value. In a moment of category jiggery-pokery, his costar Renate Reinsve (wearing the night’s only wimple) wins best European actress for what is effectively a supporting role.
Sentimental Value also nabs the two end-of-evening prizes: best director and film. But it doesn’t quite achieve the clean sweep that many commentators expect. The Spanish production designer Laia Ateca wins over Trier’s drama for Sirat. Laxe’s nailbiting film also triumphs in the sound, editing and cinematography categories. As a notable counterpoint to rival American statuettes, Sirat becomes the first film to receive the inaugural European award for its casting directors, Nadia Acimi, Luís Bértolo and María Rodrigo.
Torsten Witte, head of the makeup and hair department for Bugonia, scores this year’s only win for the Dublin-based production juggernaut Element Pictures. Christy, Brendan Canty’s Cork-based coming-of-age tale, remains in contention for the Lux audience award, with its win to be determined by a 50-50 split of votes from EU citizens and members of the European Parliament.
European Film Awards 2026: The winners
- European film: Sentimental Value
- European cinematographer: Mauro Herce, for Sirat
- European director: Joachim Trier, for Sentimental Value
- European composer: Hania Rani, for Sentimental Value
- European documentary: Fiume o Morte!, directed by Igor Bezinović
- European casting director: Nadia Acimi, Luís Bértolo and María Rodrigo, for Sirāt
- European screenwriter: Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, for Sentimental Value
- European editor: Cristóbal Fernández, for Sirat
- European sound designer: Laia Casanovas, Amanda Villavieja and Yasmina Praderas, for Sirāt
- European make-up and hair artist: Torsten Witte, for Bugonia
- European actress: Renate Reinsve, for Sentimental Value
- European actor: Stellan Skarsgard, for Sentimental Value
- European animated feature film: Arco (France), directed by Ugo Bienvenu
- European production designer: Laia Ateca, for Sirat
- European costume designer: Sabrina Krämer, for Sound of Falling
- European discovery – Prix Fipresci: On Falling (United Kingdom, Portugal), directed by Laura Carreira
- European young audience award: Siblings (Italy), directed by Greta Scarano
- European short film – Prix Vimeo: City of Poets, directed by John Smitha
