European Film Awards 2024: ‘Emilia Pérez’ by Jacques Audiard wins big

The 15 films nominated for this year’s European Film Awards are some of the strongest of the year – and we’re not just talking in Europe.

The ceremony, which honours the greatest achievements in European cinema and positions itself at the EU version of the Oscars, took place in the heart of Switzerland this year. And the verdict has dropped, with the top prize going to French film Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard.

In fact, Emilia Pérez did something of a clean sweep, much like Anatomy of a Fall did last year, winning five awards in total.

Jacques Audiard picked up the awards for Best European Film, Best European Director and Best European Screenwriter: “Don’t call me Jacques Audiard – call me Jacques Award,” quipped the French director when he received the award for the latter.

The film also won Best Editing (Juliette Welfling), and as we predicted, the wonderful Karla Sofía Gascón won Best European Actress for her role in Emilia Pérez. The Spanish actress became the first transgender actress to win the Palme d’Or for Best Actress earlier this year, and her win tonight is very merited. She shines bright in Audiard’s film: there’s power, pathos and earnestness seeping through every moment of her performance, and the double-act she and Zoe Saldaña form is magnetic to watch. Gascón ended her speech with a heartfelt call for acceptance and tolerance.

The EFAs have a recurring habit of awarding several awards to the same film, often to the detriment of some variety, it has to be said. This was the case two years ago for Triangle of Sadness, last year for Anatomy of a Fall, and once more this year with Emilia Pérez.

It’s hard to be too grumpy about this when the film is one of our favourites of the year. The Cannes premiering film, which bagged two Palmes on the Croisette this year and is France’s entry for the Oscars 2025, is a Mexico-set gangster trans musical featuring gender transitioning, cartels, gorgeous choreographies and songs about vaginoplasty. It’s basically Sicario on Broadway, and it’s as unexpected as it is unmissable. Read our full review here.

However, when there is a lot of talk during the evening about celebrating diversity, maybe some rules and parameters should be changed so that a wider variety of films are celebrated at the end of the day. It’s becoming a pattern that one film in particular always takes home the bulk of the EFA awards – and considering the nominee line-up, it doesn’t look too great.

(Scroll down for the full list of winners.)

Somewhat surprisingly, Abou Sangare beat more established actors Franz Rogowski, Ralph Fiennes, Lars Eidinger and Daniel Craig to win Best European Actor. It’s a deserved victory, as his role in French film Souleymane’s Story, directed by Boris Lojkine, is deeply impactful. Sangare plays an immigrant from Guinea working for a food delivery service in Paris as he prepares for his asylum application.

Elsewhere, Best European Documentary deservedly went to the hard-hitting No Other Land, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective composed of Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. A co-production between Palestine and Norway, the doc depicts resistance in the face of forced displacement by the Israeli military.

The directors called out the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli government: “For the sake of Palestinians in Gaza, give us what we need right now – a ceasefire needs to be imposed.” This comment prompted one audience member in the audience to cry out “Free Palestine!”

Best European Animated Film was attributed to the stunning adventure fantasy film Flow by Gints Zilbalodis, which is the Latvian entry for next year’s Academy Awards; the European Young Audience Award was bestowed upon the poignant Norwegian documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin by Benjamin Ree; and the Croatian drama The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević won Best European Short Film.

Also of note this year was the Lifetime Achievement Award for Wim Wenders, presented by the European Film Academy’s new president Juliette Binoche, and the Award for European Achievement in Cinema, which went to Isabella Rossellini.

The latter was one of the highlights of the evening, as Ralph Fiennes was presenting the award and showed the others how to do it, with humour, gravitas and emotion. Without wishing to, he showed up the rest of the hosts, which seemed somewhat clumsy and try-hard by comparison.

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Rossellini was visibly moved by the award, feeling “overwhelming gratitude” and adding: “The motor of my life has been curiosity and the fuel for this motor is fun.”

Overall, the ceremony was far smoother than last year’s in Berlin, but it did get bogged down with useless cutaways about what academy members thought of the films while spending time at a rowing club, segments that would be more at home as videos for the tourism board, as well as some dodgy connection issues and very clumsy guest hosting – the worst offenders being two Swiss stars who attempts at humour fell completely flat.

While European cinema has absolutely nothing to envy Hollywood, there’s a slickness and self-awareness that is missing in the presentation of this awards ceremony, when compared to shows like the BAFTAS, Césars, Golden Globes or the Oscars. More needs to be done for the ceremony itself to feel more polished – maybe rehearsing more if possible, making it shorter, or hiring Ralph Fiennes to host the whole thing, no interruptions. Just a thought…

Here is the full list of this year’s EFA winners:

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Best European Film 

• WINNER: EMILIA PÉREZ (France), directed by Jacques Audiard 
• BYE BYE TIBERIAS (BYE BYE TIBERIADE) (France, Belgium, Palestine, Qatar), directed by Lina Soualem, produced by Jean-Marie Nizan, Guillaume Malandrin & Ossama Bawardi 
• DAHOMEY (France, Senegal), directed by Mati Diop 
• FLOW (STRAUME) (Latvia, France, Belgium), directed by Gints Zilbalodis 
• IN LIMBO (W ZAWIESZENIU) (Poland), directed by Alina Maksimenko 
• LIVING LARGE (ŽIVOT K SEŽRÁNÍ) (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia), directed by Kristina Dufková 
• NO OTHER LAND (Palestine, Norway), directed by Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal 
• SAVAGES (SAUVAGES) (Switzerland, France, Belgium), directed by Claude Barras 
• SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT (France, Belgium, Netherlands), directed by Johan Grimonprez 
• SULTANA’S DREAM (EL SUEÑO DE LA SULTANA) (Spain, Germany, India), directed by Isabel Herguera 
• THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (Spain), directed by Pedro Almodóvar 
• THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (DANAYE ANJIR-E MOABAD) (Germany, France), directed by Mohammad Rasoulof 
• THE SUBSTANCE (UK, United States, France), directed by Coralie Fargeat 
• THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER (Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Peru), directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal 
• VERMIGLIO (Italy, France, Belgium), directed by Maura Delpero

Best European Documentary 

• WINNER: NO OTHER LAND (Palestine, Norway), directed by Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal 
• BYE BYE TIBERIAS (BYE BYE TIBERIADE), directed by Lina Soualem 
• DAHOMEY (France, Senegal), directed by Mati Diop 
• IN LIMBO (W ZAWIESZENIU) (Poland), directed by Alina Maksimenko 
• SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT (France, Belgium, Netherlands), directed by Johan Grimonprez

Best European Director 

• WINNER: Jacques Audiard for EMILIA PÉREZ 
• Andrea Arnold for BIRD
• Pedro Almodóvar for THE ROOM NEXT DOOR 
• Mohammad Rasoulof for THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG 
• Maura Delpero for VERMIGLIO

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Best Actress 

• WINNER: Karla Sofía Gascón in EMILIA PÉREZ 
• Renate Reinsve in ARMAND 
• Trine Dyrholm in THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE 
• Vic Carmen Sonne in THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE 
• Tilda Swinton in THE ROOM NEXT DOOR

Best Actor 

• WINNER: Abou Sangare in SOULEYMANE’S STORY 
• Franz Rogowski in BIRD 
• Ralph Fiennes in CONCLAVE 
• Lars Eidinger in DYING 
• Daniel Craig in QUEER

Best Screenplay 

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• WINNER: Jacques Audiard for EMILIA PÉREZ 
• Magnus von Horn & Line Langebek for THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE 
• Pedro Almodóvar for THE ROOM NEXT DOOR 
• Mohammad Rasoulof for THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG 
• Coralie Fargeat for THE SUBSTANCE

European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI 

• WINNER: ARMAND (Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden), directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel 
• HOARD (UK), directed by Luna Carmoon 
• KNEECAP (Ireland, UK), directed by Rich Peppiatt 
• SANTOSH (UK, France, Germany), directed by Sandhya Suri 
• THE NEW YEAR THAT NEVER CAME (ANUL NOU CARE N-A FOST) (Romania, Serbia), directed by Bogdan Mureșanu 
• TOXIC (AKIPLĖŠA) (Lithuania) directed by Saulė Bliuvaitė

Best European Animated Film 

• WINNER: FLOW directed by Gints Zilbalodis (Latvia, France, Belgium)  
• LIVING LARGE directed by Kristina Dufková (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia)  
• SAVAGES directed by Claude Barras (Switzerland, France, Belgium)  
• SULTANA’S DREAM directed by Isabel Herguera (Spain, Germany, India) 
• THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (Spain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Peru)

Best European Short Film 

• WINNER: THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT directed by Nebojša Slijepčević (Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia) 
• 2720 directed by Basil da Cunha (Portugal, Switzerland) 
• CLAMOR directed by Salomé Da Souza (France) 
• THE EXPLODING GIRL directed by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (France) 
• WANDER TO WONDER directed by Nina Gantz (The Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom)

European Young Audience Award 

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• WINNER: THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN (Norway), directed by Benjamin Ree 
• LARS IS LOL (Norway, Denmark), directed by Eirik Sæter Stordahl 
• WINNERS (Germany), directed by Soleen Yusef

Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our exclusive interviews with Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), Wim Wenders, Juliette Binoche, Rich Peppiatt (Kneecap) and Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig).