Several of this year’s hottest award season contenders, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons; Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value with Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, and Elle Fanning; and international feature contenders It Was Just an Accident and The Voice of Hind Rajab, have made the shortlist for the 2026 European Film Awards.
The European Film Academy on Tuesday unveiled its (quite long) shortlist of contenders for the 2026 awards, naming the features, documentaries, and animated films that qualify for next year’s event, which will be held in Berlin on Jan. 17.
In addition to Jafar Panahi’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident (and Cannes prize winners Sentimental Value, Sound of Falling, Sirat and Pillion), the short list includes several of this year’s festival favorites, including Dag Johan Haugerud’s Berlin winner Dreams, Paolo Sorrentino’s Venice festival opener La Grazia, and Tereza Nvotová’s Zurich festival winner Father. Many of Europe’s international Oscar contenders are in the EFA running, including from Norway (Sentimental Value), France (It Was Just an Accident), Germany (Sound of Falling), Switzerland (Late Shift), and Belgium (Young Mothers).
The European Film Academy moved its awards ceremony to early January, ahead of the BAFTAs and Oscars, to play a bigger role in the awards conversation and to ensure that the EFAs are the first event to honor the best European cinema of the past year.
Check out the full EFA shortlist below.
FEATURE FILMS
Bearcave (Arkoudotrypa) directed by Krysianna B. Papadakis & Stergios Dinopoulos (Greece, United Kingdom)
Bugonia directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (United Kingdom, United States, South Korea)
Case 137 (Dossier 137) directed by Dominik Moll (France)
Christy directed by Brendan Canty (Ireland, United Kingdom)
Deaf (Sorda) directed by Eva Libertad (Spain)
Die My Love directed by Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom, United States, Canada)
Dreams (Drømmer) directed by Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
Duse directed by Pietro Marcello (Italy, France)
Father (Otec) directed by Tereza Nvotová (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland)
Franz directed by Agnieszka Holland (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland)
Fuori directed by Mario Martone (Italy, France)
I Only Rest in the Storm (O Riso e a Faca) directed by Pedro Pinho (Portugal, France, Brazil, Romania)
It Was Just an Accident (Un simple accident) directed by Jafar Panahi (France, Iran, Luxembourg)
La Grazia directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Late Shift (Heldin) directed by Petra Volpe (Switzerland, Germany)
Little Trouble Girls (Kaj ti je deklica) directed by Urška Djukić (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia)
Love Me Tender directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet (France)
Loveable (Elskling) directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir (Norway)
Maspalomas directed by Jose Mari Goenaga & Aitor Arregi (Spain)
Milk Teeth (Dinti de lapte) directed by Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria)
Mirrors No. 3 (Miroirs No. 3) directed by Christian Petzold (Germany)
Mother directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska (North Macedonia, Belgium)
On Falling directed by Laura Carreira (United Kingdom, Portugal)
Once Upon a Time in Gaza directed by Tarzan Nasser & Arab Nasser (France, Palestine, Germany, Portugal, Qatar, Jordan)
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Hemme’nin öldüğü günlerden biri) directed by Murat Fıratoğlu (Turkey, Germany)
Palestine 36 directed by Annemarie Jacir (Palestine, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Norway)
Pillion directed by Harry Lighton (United Kingdom)
Romeria (Romería) directed by Carla Simón (Spain, Germany)
Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi) directed by Joachim Trier (Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden)
Silent Friend directed by Ildikó Enyedi (Germany, France, Hungary)
Sirat (Sirât) directed by Oliver Laxe (Spain, France)
Sleepless City (Ciudad sin sueño) directed by Guillermo Galoe (Spain, France)
Sound of Falling (In die Sonne schauen) directed by Mascha Schilinski (Germany)
Sundays (Los domingos) directed by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Spain)
The Last Viking (Den sidste viking) directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark, Sweden)
The Little Sister (La petite dernière) directed by Hafsia Herzi (France, Germany)
The Love That Remains (Ástin sem eftir er) directed by Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France)
The North directed by Bart Schrijver (Netherlands)
The Stranger (L’Étranger) directed by François Ozon (France)
The Voice of Hind Rajab directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (France, Tunisia)
Two Prosecutors directed by Sergei Loznitsa (France, Germany, Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania)
What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle Weiss) directed by Frédéric Hambalek (Germany)
Yes (Ken) directed by Nadav Lapid (France, Israel, Cyprus, Germany)
Young Mothers (Jeunes mères) directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne (Belgium, France)
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad) directed by Albert Serra (Spain, France)
An American Pastoral (Une pastorale americaine) directed by Auberi Edler (France)
Ancestral Visions of the Future directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (France, Lesotho, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia)
Fiume o morte! directed by Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Slovenia, Italy)
Flophouse America directed by Monica Strømdahl (Norway, Netherlands, United States)
Good Valley Stories (Historias del buen valle) directed by José Luis Guerin (Spain, France)
Hair, Paper, Water… (Tóc, giấy và nước…) directed by Nicolas Graux & Minh Quý Trương (Belgium, France, Vietnam)
Listen to the Voices (Kouté vwa) directed by Maxime Jean-Baptiste (Belgium, France)
Memory directed by Vladlena Sandu (France, Netherlands)
Militantropos directed by Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova & Simon Mozgovyi (Ukraine, Austria, France)
Riefenstahl directed by Andres Veiel (Germany)
Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Pisni zemli shscho povolno horyt) directed by Olha Zhurba (Ukraine, France, Denmark, Sweden)
The Shards (Oskolky) directed by Masha Chernaya (Georgia, Germany)
Twst / Things We Said Today directed by Andrei Ujică (France, Romania)
With Hasan in Gaza directed by Kamal Aljafari (Germany)
ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS
Arco directed by Ugo Bienvenu (France)
Balentes directed by Giovanni Columbu (Italy, Germany)
Checkered Ninja 3 (Ternet Ninja 3) directed by Anders Matthesen & Thorbjørn Christoffersen (Denmark)
Dandelion’s Odyssey (Planetes) directed by Momoko Seto (France)
Dog of God (Dieva Suns) directed by Raitis Abele & Lauris Abele (Latvia, United States)
Little Amelie (Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes) directed by Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han (France)
Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake (L’Olívia i el terratrèmol invisible) directed by Irene Iborra Rizo (Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile)
Tales from the Magic Garden (Pohádky po babičce) directed by David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar & Jean-Claude Rozec (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, France)
