European Film Awards

A committee of animation film experts has announced the five nominees in the “European Animated Feature Film” category: From Switzerland, the stop-motion animation SAUVAGES by Claude Barras, produced by Geneva-based animation studio Nadasdy Film (Nicolas Burlet), has been nominated. The Swiss-Belgian-French coproduction celebrated its world premiere in Cannes, screened in competition at the Annecy Animation Film Festival and on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, among many other festivals.

A further five films from Switzerland have been shortlisted for the nominations, which will be announced on November 5: Two Swiss productions are among the 45 films shortlisted for the Feature Film Selection 2024: DER SPATZ IM KAMIN and THE SHAMELESS by Konstantin Bojanov. DER SPATZ IM KAMIN (directed by Ramon Zürcher; produced by Silvan Zürcher) celebrated its world premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival and went on to be screened at festivals in Melbourne, Hamburg, Vancouver, Busan and at the Pingyao International Film Festival in China, where it recently won the award for Best Film.

THE SHAMELESS by Bulgarian director  Konstantin Bojanov had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, where it won the award for Best Performance (Anasuya Sengupta). Thereafter, it was screened at festivals in Sarajevo, Busan, Rio and Warsaw, among others. The film was coproduced by Geneva-based Akka Films (Nicolas Wadimoff, Philippe Coeytaux, Séverine Pisani, Palmyre Badinier) with France, Bulgaria and Taiwan.

Highly acclaimed documentary film

The Documentary Film Selection, which only comprises 12 films, includes Nicole Vögele’s Film THE LANDSCAPE AND THE FURY (produced by Beauvoir Films, Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser). The documentary celebrated its world premiere at the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, where it was honoured with the Grand Prix of the International Feature Film Competition, and subsequently with the prestigious Doc Alliance Award and the Zurich Film Prize.

Two short film candidates

Candidates for the Short Film Selection are submitted by European film festivals, where they were screened during the year.

Morgane Frund’s OUT OF THE BLUE, a 15-minute experimental video essay, was submitted by Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen. Morgane Frund wrote, produced and edited the film herself. The film has already received a Special Mention at its world premiere in the International Competition of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur.

Basil Da Cunha’s short fiction film 2740 was chosen by the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where it was honoured with the award for Best European Film. The film by the Swiss-Portuguese director was produced and shot in Portugal and can already boast an extensive international festival career garnering numerous awards.

Tour d’Europe

In conjunction with the European Film Awards, the film promotion agency SWISS FILMS has organised a “Tour d’Europe” in collaboration with European film festivals, showcasing Swiss film productions and coproductions that have been nominated for or have won the European Film Award in recent years. The next stops are:

Köln – Edimotion Festival für Filmschnitt und Montagekunst

Reykjavik International Film Festival

Amsterdam Cinekid Festival

Viennale International Film Festival

Firenze - Festival dei Popoli

Porto - Porto/Post/Doc

Numerous events are also taking place in Switzerland to highlight the award ceremony:
https://europeanfilmawards2024.ch/en/events/

In the coming weeks, the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy will watch the selected films and vote on the nominations in the categories ‘European Film’, ‘European Director’, ‘European Actress’, European Actor’, ‘European Screenwriter’ and ‘European Documentary’. The nominations will be made public on November 5, 2024. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony in Lucerne on December 7, 2024.