Pawlikowski's Fatherland and Spain's La Bola Negra Lead European Film Awards Nominations
Paweł Pawlikowski's Fatherland has earned 11 nominations for the 39th European Film Awards, one more than Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's La Bola Negra, which has 10. The European Film Academy announced the list at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, according to Variety.
The two films also shared the best director prize at Cannes, the French festival where awards are handed out each spring. Fatherland centres on the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika. Its nominations reach across the big categories, including best director for Pawlikowski and best actor for Hanns Zischler.
Sandra Hüller has a double entry in the best actress category, nominated for both Fatherland and Markus Schleinzer's Rose. The other best actress nominees are Penélope Cruz for Bunker, Léa Seydoux for Gentle Monster, Renate Reinsve for Fjord and Mathilde Arcel for Woman Unknown.
Cristian Mungiu's Fjord picked up five nominations, and Rose received four. May el-Toukhy's Woman Unknown has three. Bunker, Coward, Elsinore, Everytime and Minotaur each have two.
The best director shortlist is Pawlikowski, Calvo and Ambrossi, Mungiu, Sandra Wollner for Everytime, and Andrey Zvyagintsev for Minotaur. In best actor, Javier Bardem is nominated for The Beloved, Andrew Scott for Elsinore, Sebastian Stan for Fjord, and Swann Arlaud for A Man of His Time, alongside Zischler.
Some categories are less familiar to casual viewers. The best documentary shortlist is NAZA, Letters From the Silenced Country, Rehearsals for a Revolution, To Hold a Mountain and Whispers in the Woods. The best animated film list is Viva Carmen, Lucy Lost, Jim Queen, Iron Boy and In Waves.
Nominations are a shortlist, not a result. They come from votes by 5,700 members of the European Film Academy, the group that runs the awards. Winners will be unveiled on 16 January 2027 in Athens, Greece.
Festival trophies tend to shape where a film travels next. A nomination can help a title stay in conversation with buyers and audiences in the months before a broader release, though the awards themselves do not decide where films are shown. For now, the list gives audiences a clear map of the European films in contention.
