The Norwegian film about the reunion of an absent film director and his two daughters, one of them an actress, has won six awards at the 38th European Film Academy Awards ceremony, held in Berlin. She won five trophies after being a candidate in nine sections. No Spanish film had won so many European awards. The ceremony was marked by political and social messages, especially the conflicts in Gaza, Iran and the fear that freedom and democracy will be diluted.
In the victory of Valor sentimental the awards for best film entered; address (given by the Javis); best soundtrack, by Hania Rani; and as best actress and actor, respectively, and also for screenplay, for Trier and Eskil Vogt.
Sirât had achieved the record of nine nominations in the awards, because for the first time the technical awards have been voted on by all academics and not chosen, as before, by different specialty committees, which decided and announced the awards before the gala.
And they won five. Laia Ateca, for her complex work on Laxe’s film, won the award for best production design. In his brief speech, in French, English and Spanish, he thanked the team for their support and asked for “a long life for brave and free cinema.” Best sound went to Laia Casanovas, Amanda Villavieja and Yasmina Praderas for their impressive sound atmosphere. Cristóbal Fernández took it during assembly and Laxe picked it up on his behalf. In the direction of casting, which was given for the first time, Nadia Acimi, Luís Bértolo and María Rodrigo won. Mauro Herce triumphed in cinematography, thanking him in a live connection.
If on the red carpet he carried a banner that read “From Berlin to Gaza, we rise up against all those who defend an ideology of death,” messages in favor of freedom and the defense of European culture followed one another on stage. The event started with the Iranian (A simple accident has entered the awards race thanks to its production as a French film) remembering the massacres suffered by its compatriots carried out by the Iranian Government itself and calling on filmmakers to continue making films for freedom. “When truth is crushed in one place, freedom is suffocated everywhere.” […]. That’s why no one is safe anywhere in the world. Not even in Iran. Not even in Europe. Not even in the United States. Not anywhere on this planet. And that is precisely why today our task as filmmakers and artists is more difficult than ever. If we are disappointed in politicians, we should at least refuse to be silent. Because silence in times of crime is not neutrality. Silence is participating in the darkness.” For her part, the Iranian filmmaker Sara Rajaei, winner of the best short film with the Dutch City of Poets (centered on the Persian town Shiraz, the city with streets named after poets, changed for deceased combatants), he acknowledged that at other times he would have celebrated the award. Now he just wanted to express his pain. And the Norwegian filmmaker honored for her career, who in the middle of the speech on world news said: “I’m Norwegian, we give a Nobel Prize to someone who deserves it, and suddenly it goes to someone else. It’s so strange… and that’s why I’m happy because we have laws that say that if you misuse the Nobel Prize it can be taken away from you. Someone with power in the US may be disappointed. He will lose it and I’m happy.”
In Berlin, 18 competitive trophies and three honorary ones were distributed: for the Norwegian actress and director Ullmann, great of European cinema, for her career; for their contribution to world cinema, and Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski for their work in international co-production.
The gala did not have a typical presenter, but rather a film historian and documentary filmmaker, with the idea of creating a “live film essay,” he had previously stated. In the end, he behaved as a kind of commentator on film sensations that were projected on the screens of the Berlin House of World Cultures. Furthermore, also for the first time, the awards were held in January, to make their weight felt in the Oscar race, and not in December, when films from the previous season were also awarded, thus their significance was drastically reduced. That is why there was no award in 2025: this is how they accommodated the date to the calendar of the motley winter film awards season. In January 2027 the gala will travel to Athens.
In costume design, the trophy went to Sabrina Krämer for the German film. The award for best animated feature goes to the French film Arco, in a category I was in Olivia and the invisible earthquake. In makeup and hair, Torsten Witte won for his work on Bugonia.
The honorary discovery award went to the Portuguese drama about job insecurity and emigration produced by Ken Loach. The young audience award went to him The life of adults by Greta Scarano. And in best documentary, where it competed Lonely afternoons, he received the trophy Fire or Death!, by Croatian Igor Bezinović.
