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When Julia Roberts attended the French Césars this March, Jean-Pascal Zadi was given the task of introducing the Erin Brockovich Oscar-winning actress.

The comic actor and director had Roberts in fits as he drew comparisons between their big toothy smiles and explained she could apply for political asylum if she were feeling the heat back home, suggesting she could get tips from actor Abou Sangaré, who was sitting a few seats behind.

Guinea-born Sangaré, who won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Best Actor prize in 2024 for his performance as an undocumented migrant in Souleymane’s Story and would be feted with Best Male Revelation that evening, had just escaped deportation from France after securing a work permit in January.

The tone of the humor was typical of Zadi, who four years previously also won Best Male Revelation for Simply Black, his riotously, impolitically correct comedy tackling the experiences of Black people in France.

Exclusive: Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Souleymane’s Story, winner of two prizes in Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year.

Conic will schedule a theatrical release for later in 2025, having acquired the film from Pyramide.

Set over 48 hours in Paris, Souleymane’s Story follows a Guinean asylum seeker racing through the streets delivering food, as he awaits the interview which will decide whether or not he will be granted residency.

It is the third film from French filmmaker Boris Lojkine, and is produced by Bruno Nahon of France’s Unité.

Souleymane’s Story won the Jury award and...

Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, a French drama about a bicycle deliveryman and asylum seeker in Paris, that won the jury prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard last year.

Non-professional Abou Sangare, who plays the titular lead character, Souleymane, won the Un Certain Regard best actor honor and has been universally praised for his performance, winning best acting honors at the European Film Awards and France’s Césars.

The film plays like a ticking-clock thriller as Souleymane, a Guinean immigrant, races through the streets of Paris, making food deliveries on his bicycle, struggling to stay afloat. In two days, he has to report for an asylum application interview, which will determine whether he will receive the coveted carte de séjour, which would allow him to live and work legally in France. The “story” of the film’s title refers to...

“Souleymane’s Story,” Boris Lojkine’s timely drama which took two prizes at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and four Cesar Awards earlier this year, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for U.S. and English-speaking Canada distribution rights.

Bolstered by the debut performance of first-time actor Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” is a ticking-clock drama charting the journey of a Guinean immigrant working as a bicycle deliveryman in Paris in the days leading up to his asylum interview. Kino Lorber pointed the film draws inspiration from Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and socially minded films by the Dardenne brothers.

Since world premiering at Cannes where it won the Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard and best actor for Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” became a major arthouse hit in France, selling approximately 500,000 admissions in French cinemas. The film also turned out to be one of the highlights of France’s awards season.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light took top honors at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (Ics) Awards, winning best picture, director, and ensemble. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix, has continued to receive recognition, earning nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

The Ics recognized Kapadia’s film for its portrayal of “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of modern India.” The story follows women from different generations who form a quiet bond as they navigate personal and cultural challenges.

Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers trapped in an abusive reform school, won best adapted screenplay for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who based the script on Colson Whitehead’s novel. The film also received the cinematography award for Jomo Fray’s work.

Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths won multiple awards, including best actress for Marianne Jean-Baptiste,...

In the end, Emilia Pérez went two for 13. Jacques Audiard’s unclassifiable Mexican cartel transgender musical went into the 97th Academy Awards as the theoretical frontrunner. It’s 13 nominations — for best picture, director, actress, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, international feature, cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, sound and two for original song — were the most ever for a non-English-language film, beating the 10 noms each for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma, and within touching distance of the all-time record held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land, which earned 14 each.

But when the votes were counted, Emilia Pérez walked away with just two awards: A best supporting actress nod for Zoe Saldaña and the best original song honor for “El Mal.”

We all know why. Emilia Pérez suffered the most spectacular derailing of an Oscar campaign in recent memory. There was just a week between the Jan.

Emilia Pérez won Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Original Music, Best Special Effects and Best Cinematography at the 50th edition of the Césars (aka the French Oscars) but in having two horses in the Best Actress race meant that the surprise win and award went to Hafsia Herzi for Borgo instead. The other big winner of the evening was Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story – he won for Best Original Screenplay (with Delphine Agut), Best Editing, Best Supporting Actress and of course Male Revelation – Abou Sangare had won at the European film awards for a role that won him Best Actor in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.…...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...

Jacques Audiard swept the board at the 50th Césars on Friday evening, winning Best Director and Film for Emilia Pérez against expectations after its award-season campaign was derailed by the uncovering of racist tweets by its star Karla Sofía Gascón.

“It’s such a pleasure although I fear you actually don’t like me,” quipped a visibly moved Audiard as he received the Directors Award, which was announced first, with Anatomy of Fall Oscar and César winner Justine Triet handing it over. “I thank my marvellous team and when I say my team it’s not in the sense of ownership, but rather a declaration of love.”

Audiard also cited Gascón, who he has publicly distanced himself from in the wake of the tweet scandal, as well as co-star Zoe Saldaña, referring to them as “My darling Zoe, my Darling Karla.”

Audiard’s Oscar hopeful also clinched Best Adapted Screenplay,...

Jacques Audiard’s crime musical “Emilia Perez” won a raft of prizes, including best film and director, at the 50th edition of the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, on Friday in Paris.

“Emilia Perez” won a total of seven awards out of 12 nominations. While Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofía Gascón were both on hand and nominated for best actress, they lost to Hafsia Herzi, who starred as a prison supervisor in Stéphane Demoustier’s “Borgo.”

Gascón made her first award show appearance at the Cesar Awards ceremony after laying low in the wake of her offensive posts. Although she skipped the press line on the red carpet, Gascón sat on the same row as Audiard and Saldana inside the Olympia theater, but didn’t seat next to them and didn’t seem to be on speaking terms.

The ceremony’s emcee, French actor Jean-Pascal Zadi, tried to...

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar contender Emilia Pérez was the big winner at the 50th César Awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, taking best film and best director among multiple honors.

Audiard won best director and best adapted screenplay for Emilia Pérez, and the film also took honors for best sound, best cinematography, best visual effects and best original music.

But Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, who walked the red carpet at the Paris gala, returning to the spotlight for the first time since the eruption of the controversy surrounding her offensive resurfaced tweets, lost out in the best actress race to Hafsia Herzi, who won for her role as a female prison guard in Stéphane Demoustier’s drama Borgo.

Gascón, who is Spanish, skipped Spain’s national film awards, the Goyas, earlier this month following the backlash over her past social media posts. Netflix removed the actress, the...

The 2025 César Awards, France’s premier film celebration, has unveiled its nominations, with “The Count of Monte Cristo” leading the pack with an impressive 14 nods. The announcement sets the stage for a star-studded ceremony on February 28 at the Olympia Concert Hall in Paris.

The epic adaptation directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière dominated the French film landscape in 2024, drawing nearly 10 million viewers and establishing itself as the country’s top cinematic export. Close behind is Gilles Lellouche’s “Beating Hearts,” a modern Romeo and Juliet reimagining that secured 13 nominations and attracted over five million moviegoers.

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” continues its awards season success with 12 César nominations, including best film and acting nods for Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldana. The film has already claimed four Golden Globes and is a strong contender in the international film circuit.

The nominations highlight both achievements and challenges in French cinema.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

“The Count of Monte Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s literary classic, is leading the race at the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, with a whooping 14 nominations. “Beating Hearts,” Gilles Lellouche’s sprawling crime romance, follows shortly with 13 nominations.

A favorite in the Oscar race, Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” is nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, including best film and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldana. The French awards show has highlighted international performers before, notably Kristen Stewart, who won a Cesar nod in 2015 for her supporting role in Olivier Assayas’ “Cloud of Sils Maria.”

It’s worth noting that the two Cesar frontrunners — “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Beating Hearts” — were also France’s second and third highest grossing local films in 2024. Both movies are produced by Mediawan-owned banners, Chapter 2 and Chi-Fou-Mi (the latter produced “Beating Hearts...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

The awards keep coming for Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez with Karla Sofia Gascón named best actress at the Lumière Awards in Paris last night, plus a haul of four other gongs. Photo: UniFrance

Often dubbed France’s answer to the Golden Globes, the Lumière Awards were bestowed last night at a ceremony at the Forum des Images in the heart of Paris. The event saw Jacques Audiard’s much trumpeted drugs cartel musical Emilia Pérez sweep the board with five awards.

A couple of swells: Clement Faveau (best male newcomer for Holy Cow) and right Abou Sangare (best actor for The Story of Souleymane) at the Hotel de Ville reception following the Lumière Awards ceremony. Photo: Richard Mowe

The film’s director and cast were busy in the US as part of the Oscars campaign but sent suitably gushing messages to the organisers, who include journalists, based in France,...

Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez swept France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening (January 20), winning five prizes including best film.

The Oscar and Bafta hopeful was the frontrunner going into the 30th edition of the awards with six nominations, and took home prizes for nearly all of them including best director, best screenplay, best score for Camille and Clément Ducol, and best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón.

Audiard set a new record at this year’s Lumieres, winning best film for a third time after 2006’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and 2019’s The Sisters Brothers, and...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” swept France’s 30th Lumiere Awards, the local equivalent to the Golden Globes, at a ceremony held on Monday in Paris at the Forum des Images auditorium.

“Emilia Pérez” dominated the show, winning a whopping five awards: best film, director, script, actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, and music for Camille and Clement Ducol. The awards were voted on by France-based journalists from 38 countries.

The Spanish-language, Mexico-set crime musical stars Gascón as notorious cartel leader Manitas del Monte, who fakes her own death to live authentically as a trans woman. The supporting cast includes Selena Gomez, who plays Manitas’ tormented wife Jessi, and Zoe Saldaña, who portrays Rita, a talented but overworked lawyer recruited by Emilia to help her start a new life. Since winning Cannes’ jury prize and an award for its female ensemble, “Emilia Pérez” has received a flood of international laurels and is now leading the U.

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

Except perhaps Souleymane’s Story‘s Abou Sangare biking away with the European Actor award (beating out Conclave‘s Ralph Fiennes) there were no surprises at last night’s European Film Awards with Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Pérez winning four of the five prizes it was nominated for. Karla Sofía Gascón won Best Actress, Audiard won Best Screenwriter and Director while the film the top prize of the evening. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal’s No Other Land continues to dominate the docu awards circuit which means here is a legit shot at a future Oscar. Here are the noms and winners:

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

European Screenwriter:

Winner: Jacques Audiard for Emilia PÉREZ

Magnus von Horn & Line Langebek...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” won best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the 37th European Film Awards, which were held Saturday in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The best film nominees included narrative features “The Room Next Door,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “The Substance” and “Vermiglio,” as well as documentaries “Bye Bye Tiberias,” “Dahomey,” “In Limbo,” “No Other Land” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” and animated films “Flow,” “Living Large,” “Savages,” “Sultana’s Dream” and “They Shot the Piano Player.”

The statuette for actress was won by Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The other nominees were Renate Reinsve in “Armand,” Trine Dyrholm in “The Girl With the Needle,” Vic Carmen Sonne in “The Girl With the Needle” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door.”

The director award went to Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” who beat Andrea Arnold for “Bird,” Pedro Almodóvar for “The Room Next Door,” Mohammad Rasoulof...

Jacques Audiard’s latest Emilia Pérez dominated the European Film Awards this evening in Lucerne, Switzerland, taking Best Film and Best Director. Check out the full winners list below.

The Netflix crime drama won all four of it’s nominations. Audiard’s pic came into this evening’s tied with Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door for the most noms. The film’s haul included Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Best Screenplay.

Other big winners this evening in Switzerland included filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis who won Best Animated feature for his buzzy pic Flow and the Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land took the Best Documentary prize.

Tonight’s dominant display hands Audiard and his Emilia Pérez collaborators a significant vote of confidence as they head into the heat of awards seasons. The European Film Awards, which are voted on by the Berlin-based European Film Academy’s some 5,000 members based across Europe,...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” won Best Film at the 37th European Film Awards on Saturday, December 7, claiming the most overall awards as well with five wins.

Going into the evening, Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” led with nominations, having received recognition in multiple categories, including European Film and European Screenwriter, as well as will multiple technical awards including European Cinematography and European Visual Effects.

Held in Lucerne, Switzerland, the European Film Awards kicked off with a celebration of the vibrant diversity present throughout the room, with host Fernando Tiberini commencing the ceremony in all the languages spoken in Switzerland and encouraging all winners to say a few words in their native tongue upon accepting.

The first winner of the night was French filmmaker Audiard, who was presented the award for European Director by “The Apprentice” star Maria Bakalova in honor of his work for “Emilia Pérez.” The film is...

Emilia Pérez got an early boost in its awards campaign on Saturday night by cleaning up at the 37th European Film Awards, handed out in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language transgender musical won best film, best director and best screenplay honors for Audiard. Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular character, won best actress, becoming the first trans performer to win in the category.

“I didn’t prepare anything because I was sure I wasn’t going to receive anything tonight,” said Gascón, accepting her prize. She thanked Audiard, “the best European director for making the best European actress.” Gascón dedicated here prize “to my mother and to all mothers in this world because their values and their function are sometimes undervalued, [and] I would like to devote this prize to all families and ask all parents to love their children, because, unfortunately, in this world, there are families that...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez triumphed at this year’s European Film Awards, taking home five prizes including best film at tonight’s (December 7) ceremony in Lucerne.

The Mexico-set musical drama, about a feared drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, clinched the best film, director, screenwriter and actress prizes, in addition to its previously announced editing prize.

Receiving the first prize of the evening, for European director, Audiard said he had prepared no fewer than three speeches. “I was being very optimistic,” he joked. Accepting the best director award he quoted British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott’s famous phrase:...

The European Film Awards is taking place in the Swiss city of Lucerne tonight (December 7) and Screen is revealing the winners live from the ceremony, which kicked off at 20.00 Cet.

Scroll down for winners

To read the winners as they are announced, you can refresh the page and scroll down to the full list below.

The ceremony is also being live-streamed below.

Emilia Pérez and The Room Next Door are the front-runners for this year’s awards with four nominations apiece.

Fifteen features compete for the best European film prize, up from five last year. This follows a recent rule...

‘La Habitación de al Lado’ encabeza las nominaciones y Karla Sofía Gascón opta al premio a la Mejor Actriz. © Warner Bros| Elástica Films | DeAPlaneta

Ya se conocen las nominaciones a la 37ª edición de los Premios del Cine Europeo (Efa), y España está de enhorabuena: La habitación de al lado, de Pedro Almodóvar encabeza las nominaciones (junto a Emilia Pérez) y la española Karla Sofía Gascón se encuentra nominada a la Mejor Actriz. Además, las películas animadas españolas El sueño de la sultana y Dispararon al pianista se llevan dos nominaciones cada una. Los ganadores de los premios se anunciarán el 7 de diciembre de 2024. Aquí está la lista de nominados:

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Bye Bye Tiberias

Dahomey

Emilia Pérez

Flow

In Limbo

Living Large

No Other Land

Savages

Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat

El sueño de la sultana

La habitación de al lado

The Seed of the Sacred Fig...

Jacques Audiard‘s “Emilia Pérez” and Pedro Almodóvar‘s “The Room Next Door” topped Tuesday’s 37th European Film Awards nominations with four apiece.

Both are up for Best European Film, Best European Director, and Best European Screenwriter prizes, while their leads, Karla Sofía Gascón in “Emilia Pérez” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door,” will face off in Best European Actress.

Mohammad Rasoulof‘s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” nabbed three nominations for film, director, and screenwriter. Coralie Fargeat‘s word-of-mouth hit “The Substance” scored two bids for film and screenwriter honors.

For the first time, films nominated for Best European Documentary and Best Animated Feature Film are eligible in the Best European Film category, leading to an expanded list of 15 nominees. Also making the cut for the top prize are Italy’s Oscar entry “Vermiglio,” Senegal’s entry “Dahomey,” and Latvia’s entry and animated film “Flow.

Emilia Pérez and The Room Next Door have emerged as the front-runners for the European Film Awards 2024, with four nominations apiece.

The nominations for the main categories of this year’s awards, which take place on December 7 in Lucerne, were announced this morning by the European Film Academy.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Fifteen features compete for the best European film prize, up from five last year. This follows a recent rule change which means that films shortlisted for the best documentary and animation categories can also compete in the section.

Emilia Pérez is nominated in the best European film category,...

The European Film Awards has broadened the scope of its prestigious Best European Film category for this year’s ceremony. Documentaries and animated features will now be eligible to compete alongside traditional narrative films for the top honor.

This change is reflected in the nominations announced ahead of the December 7 ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland. A record 15 films are nominated in the expanded Best European Film category, representing a variety of storytelling formats. This includes narrative films like “Emilia Pérez” and “The Substance,” documentaries such as Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” and Lina Soualem’s “Bye Bye Tiberias,” as well as the animated film “Flow” by Gints Zilbalodis.

The directing category also highlights both established names and newcomers. Past winner Pedro Almodóvar received a nomination for “The Room Next Door,” alongside Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” Andrea Arnold for “Bird,” Mohammad Rasoulof for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” and Maura Delpero for “Vermiglio.

The nominees for this year’s European Film Awards have been unveiled, with “Emilia Pérez,” “The Substance” and “The Room Next Door” all up for best European film.

Movies also in the running for the ceremony’s top award — which was expanded this year to documentaries and animated features — include Lina Soualem’s “Bye Bye Tiberias”; Mati Diop’s “Dahomey”; Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow”; Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra and Hamdan Balla’s “No Other Land”; Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”; and Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio.”

“Emilia Pérez” and “The Substance” lead the nominees overall, with each film scoring four respective nominations. The winners will be revealed during an awards ceremony on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

See all the nominees below.

European Film

“Bye Bye Tiberias” — documentary film, directed by Lina Soualem, produced by Jean-Marie Nizan, Guillaume Malandrin and Ossama Bawardi

“Dahomey” — documentary film, directed by Mati Diop,...

The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard, The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof are among the nominees for the 2024 European Film Awards (EFAs), organizers unveiled on Tuesday.

Emilia Pérez and The Room Next Door earned four noms each, including for best European film and best director. Sacred Fig is up for the best film, best director, and best screenwriter prizes. The Substance is in the running for the best film and best screenwriter honors.

In the best actress race, Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón faces Renate Reinsve, Tilda Swinton for her role in The Room Next Door, and The Girl With the Needle actresses Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne. For The Girl With the Needle, Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek are also nominated in the best screenwriter category.

Queer star Daniel Craig and...

Abou Sangaré may have won an award at Cannes, but he says all he wants is to be allowed work as a mechanic

Irregular migration and stymied deportation orders have long loomed over French politics, issues that were exploited in recent elections by a far right eager to stoke fears.

Now an award-winning film is amplifying the voices of those who have long been shut out of the conversation: undocumented migrants themselves.

Souleymane’s Story delivers a political fable with all the grit and urgency of a thriller. It follows a Guinean food-delivery driver who rides his bike through Paris’ busy streets with alarming haste. En route from client to client, he recites a script he plans to perform the next day at his asylum meeting. His pay is determined by how many jobs he completes, but a slice of those commissions are taken by the man who operates his account––and when money is needed (Souleymane remains in arrears to the man who wrote his script), he’s not always easy to pin down. Each day ticks like a time bomb, leading up to when the last bus leaves for Souleymane’s refugee shelter. Miss it and he sleeps rough. Run afoul of the delivery app’s anonymous moderators and his only source of income vanishes. Run afoul of the police...

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, about a food delivery worker on a bike seeking asylum in Paris, has pedalled its way to a slew of distribution deals in key territories following its debut in Un Certain Regard and ahead of its premiere in Toronto’s Centrepiece section.

Pyramide International has sold the film to Academy Two in Italy, K-Films in Quebec, Reel Pictures in Denmark, Moving Turtle for the Middle East and North Africa, Trigon in Switzerland and Austria, BookMyShow in India, Siyahbeyaz Movies in Turkey, September Films in Benelux, Leopardo Filmes in Portugal, Falcon in Indonesia, New Cinema...

The Story of Souleymane follows an undocumented delivery worker as he prepares for an asylum application interview while pedaling through the Paris streets. But belying the innocuous title and unassuming premise, this latest narrative feature from veteran filmmaker Boris Lojkine is actually a fast-paced thriller. And also a logistical feat as Lojkine’s lens races to keep up with his less than honest protagonist as he literally cycles through a Kafkaesque EU system in which even the most mundane move might […]

The post “I Was Much More Influenced by Andrea Arnold’s Work or That of the Safdie Brothers”: Boris Lojkine on His Cannes Jury Prize-Winning The Story of Souleymane first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The Story of Souleymane follows an undocumented delivery worker as he prepares for an asylum application interview while pedaling through the Paris streets. But belying the innocuous title and unassuming premise, this latest narrative feature from veteran filmmaker Boris Lojkine is actually a fast-paced thriller. And also a logistical feat as Lojkine’s lens races to keep up with his less than honest protagonist as he literally cycles through a Kafkaesque EU system in which even the most mundane move might […]

The post “I Was Much More Influenced by Andrea Arnold’s Work or That of the Safdie Brothers”: Boris Lojkine on His Cannes Jury Prize-Winning The Story of Souleymane first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival was officially closed yesterday, on May 25, 2024, as the prizes for the movies and the actors were awarded at the closing ceremony. It was a very exciting and content-filled event, and we have also reported on numerous movies that had their premiere at Cannes, some of which were received well, while others… not so much. But, naturally, everyone wants to know who won and who lost at Cannes, and that is what we are going to report about in this article.

The article will be divided into two main sections. The first one will list all the juries at Cannes, since they are the ones who chose the winners at the film festival, so we think that it is only fair that you know who picked the winners. After that, we are going to list all the winners in each of the categories.

As we have said,...

The 77th Cannes Film Festival has come to a close. As with every year, the festival was host to its share of standing ovations, divisive screenings and debates over just which films and performances would take home awards at the end of the 12-day event, widely considered the most prestigious in the entire world. This year, Sean Baker’s Anora took the Palme d’Or while India’s All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix, generally considered the runner-up.

So, who else won out at this year’s Cannes Film Festival? While below is only a partial list of winners, you can check out the complete and extensive list here.

Palme d’Or: Anora, Sean Baker

Grand Prix: All We Imagine as Light, Payal Kapadia

Best Director: Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour

Best Actor: Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness

Best Actress: Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Zoe Saldaña,...

It’s not only because of its similar time frame that Boris Lojkine’s hurtling, headlong social-issues drama “Souleymane’s Story” recalls “Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne brothers. Lojkine’s film, which was awarded the jury prize and a well-deserved best actor award in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes, is similarly invested in its electrifying lead — non-professional Abou Sangare, making an unforgettably persuasive and poignant debut — and similarly effective in maintaining a level of urgency and high-stakes personal peril that few genre thrillers can muster. If the hero’s dire situation is a ticking clock, Lojkine’s intelligent and empathetic film places us right alongside him, with each cog of circumstance and each gear of good fortune grinding against him at every turn.

Souleymane (Sangare) is a recent arrival in Paris from Guinea, who sleeps in homeless shelters at night and works as a delivery biker by...

Guan Hu’s Black Dog has won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25).

It is the Cannes debut for Mr. Six director Guan and follows a former convict who forms an unlikely connection with the titular animal, as he clears stray dogs in his remote hometown on the edge of the Gobi desert before the 2008 Olympic Games. Playtime are handling international sales.

The jury prize went to The Story Of Souleymane from Boris Lojkine, back at the festival 10 years after his 2014 feature Hope, with the story of a...

Chinese director Hu Guan’s drama Black Dog snagged the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar on Friday night.

The drama, set on the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, follows a man who returns home after a stint in jail and gets a job clearing a town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games. But he forms an unexpected bond with a black dog, and together, they embark on a new journey.

The film’s canine star won a pooch prize earlier in the day, scooping up the Grand Jury award at the Palm Dog.

For Un Certain Regard, the Jury Prize went to The Story Of Souleymane, Boris Lojkine’s Paris-set story of an African immigrant struggling to make a living and get legalized in the city of lights. Lead Abou Sangare also clinched one of the Un Certain Regard performance awards. The other...

Chinese director Hu Guan’s drama Black Dog won the top prize in Cannes Un Certain Regard on Friday evening.

The Jury Prize went to Boris Lojkine’s Paris-set asylum-seeker tale The Story Of Souleymane.

Best Director went to in ex aequo to Roberto Minervini for U.S. civil war drama The Damned and Rungano Nyoni for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.

The Performance award went to Anasuya Sengupta for her performance as a young sex worker on the run in Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s India-set drama The Shameless, and Abou Sangare for his performance in Boris Lojkine’s The Story Of Souleymane as a young asylum seeker.

In other prizes, French director Louise Courvoisier won the Youth Prize for Holy Cow, while Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi was feted with a Special Mention for Nora.

This year’s jury was presided over by Canadian actor, director, screenwriter and producer Xavier Dolan,...

Exactly ten years after the genre-mixing, canine-driven Hungarian thriller “White God” landed the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, this year’s ceremony culminated in the same prize going to a somewhat corresponding title: Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” a fusion of western, film noir and offbeat comedy with a highly lovable mutt at its center. The film, about a damaged loner returning to his desert hometown after a spell in prison and finding a kindred spirit in an equally world-weary greyhound, beat 17 other titles to take the top prize in the festival’s second-most prestigious competitive section. (The festival’s Official Competition awards will be handed out tomorrow night.)

Jury president Xavier Dolan, the actor-auteur behind such films as “Mommy” and “Laurence Anyways,” commended Guan’s film for “its breathtaking poetry, its imagination, its precision [and] its masterful direction.” He echoed the enthusiasm of Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...

Boris Lojkine returns with his latest film dealing with the troubles of people from central Africa, only this time, following what happens to them once they get to mainland Europe. The Story of Souleymane has its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it’s a part of the official selection within the Un Certain Regard programme.

It opens on a shot of a tired black young man (Abou Sangare), with some visible injuries to his face, as he’s waiting in line, blending into the sea of other people around him, out of focus. While he's waiting to be summoned for his asylum application interview, he notices a smudge of blood on his sleeve and is trying to rub it off, as he wants to give off his best impression during the interview. His name is Souleymane, and as he’s heading in, the film fades to black and we.