Holy Spider, Triangle of Sadness - equal front-runners at EFA nominations

The Swedish Palme d’or winner Triangle of Sadness produced by Plattform, is also competing for best actor (Zlatko Burić) while Paris-based Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, crowned best actress in Cannes, could add an EFA statuette for her performance in Holy Spider. The Danish film was produced by Profile Pictures in association with Germany’s One Two Films.

Östlund’s previous Palme d’or The Square triumphed at the EFA awards 2017 with six wins including Best film and director. The director’s new satire Triangle of Sadness is also selected this year for the European University Film Award to be handed out December 7, three days before the official European Film Awards ceremony in Reykjavik.

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS TRAILER

A total of five films are running for European film of the year including the Spanish film Alcarràs, Belgium Close (also front-runner with a total of four EFA nominations) and Austrian Corsage.

In other categories, the Cannes Un Certain Regard entry Godland by Icelandic-born Hlynur Pálmason is competing for European actor of the year (Elliot Crosset Hove). The period drama produced by Denmark’s Snowglobe with Iceland’s Join Motion Pictures, was selected for this year’s Nordic Council Film Prize.

Another Danish entry is the multi-awarded A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont, vying for Best European Documentary. The sensitive portrait of social workers and kids in an orphanage in war-torn eastern Ukraine which earned Lereng Wilmont a directing award in Sundance, was produced by Final Cut for Real.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond is associated to 10 EFA nominations for Triangle of Sadness, Holy Spider, Godland and A House Made of Splinters.

Elsewhere, the Icelandic box office hit Cop Secret by Hannes Þór Halldórss produced by Pegasus is competing for Best European Comedy.

Over 4,400 members of the European Film Academy are set to vote for the winners, to be announced at a ceremony in Reykjavík December 10, 2022.

Month of European Cinema
Ahead of the major European film awards, the nominated films and European cinema as a whole will be celebrated through the newly launched ‘Month of European Cinema’, running November 13 to December 10.

For four weeks, flagship cinemas in 35 countries will be showcasing European films as well as special retrospectives and programmes, such as a Nordic Film Focus in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Nordic cinemas taking part in the event include the Nicolai cinema in Kolding, Denmark, the Orion cinema in Helsinki, Bío Paradís in Reykjavik, Vega cinema in Oslo and Folkets Bio cinema in Umeå.

Kick-off day on November 13 will be celebrating European cinema via the ‘European Arthouse Cinema Day’ (organised by the international arthouse association CICAE) and the European Film Academy’s yearly Young Audience Award. Sweden’s Comedy Queen is among the contenders.

Meanwhile from November 14, streaming platform MUBI will be screening 100 European films from classics to landmark new films.

“We are convinced that strengthening the visibility of European films which feature our very own European stories and history, shouldn’t be done only on a national level. This is a European question and need, one that can only be answered successfully together, by further joining forces,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy underscoring that the event is set to widen in the future.

The Month of European Film is backed by the Creative European MEDIA Programme and arranged in collaboration with Europa Cinemas, MUBI and arthouse confederation CICAE.