In anticipation of the European Film Awards ceremony on December 9, 2023, the nineteen nominated productions have been shortlisted by the Council of the European Film Academy for the first part of the feature film selection for 2023. Further titles will be announced in September.
Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy promotes European film culture. European Film Awards are presented jointly by the Academy and European Film Academy Productions to the greatest achievements of European cinema. Among other criteria, feature films are eligible if they had their first official screening between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2023 and have a European director. Otherwise, “European refugee or similar status or having lived in Europe and worked in the European film industry for at least five consecutive years” is required.
After the selection of the feature films, the 4,600 members of the European Film Academy will start watching and voting on the chosen titles, taking the awards to the third stage: on the basis of the votes, the nominations in the feature film categories (European Film, European Director, European Actor, European Actress and European Screenwriter) and in the European Documentary category will be made public on November 7.
The winners will then be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin on 9 December 2023.
Here is the selection:
20,000 Species of Bees – Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain)
Afire – Christian Petzold (Germany)
Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet (France)
Behind the Haystacks – Asimina Proedrou (Greece/Germany)
Blackbird Blackberry – Elene Naveriani (Switzerland/Georgia)
Close Your Eyes – Víctor Erice (Spain/Argentina)
Fallen Leaves – Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/Germany)
Femme – Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (UK)
Firebrand – Karim Aïnouz (UK)
How To Have Sex – Molly Manning Walker (UK/Greece)
Kidnapped – Marco Bellocchio (Italy/France/Germany)
La Chimera – Alice Rohrwacher (Italy/France/Switzerland)
Safe Place – Juraj Lerotic (Croatia/Slovenia)
Slow – Marija Kavtaradze (Lithuania/Spain)
The Animal Kingdom – Thomas Cailley (France)
The Goldman Case – Cédric Kahn (France)
The Happiest Man in the World – Teona Strugar Mitevska (North Macedonia/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia/Denmark)
The Old Oak – Ken Loach (UK/France/Belgium)
The Teachers’ Lounge – Ilker Çatak (Germany)
Photo Credits: Pxhere
