The nominations for the 2019 European Film Awards were announced on Saturday morning at the Seville Film Festival and in no surprise, Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory” took four nods including European Film, European Director (Almodovar), European Actor (Antonio Banderas) and European Screenwriter (Almodovar). Two other films surprised with four nominations including the top prize; Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and A Spy” and Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor.” And, thanks to a unique qualification calendar, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” earned three nods including European Film.
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The top prize was rounded out by Lady Lj’s “Les Miserables,” which landed three nominations overall,” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher,” which also earned a Best Actress nomination for young actor Helena Zengel. Both films are France and Germany’s submissions for the International Film Oscar, respectively.
This year’s winners will be announced on Dec. 7 in a ceremony held in Berlin. The nominations are good publicity for both “Pain and Glory,” which hopes to earn Academy Award nominations beyond the International Film category, and “The Traitor,” which is a likely, but not guaranteed to make the 10-film shortlist. Polanski’s “An Officer and A Spy” earned mixed reviews at Venice and still does not have a U.S. distributor. It opens in Spain and Italy this month.
Surprise omissions include Corneliu Porumboiu’s “The Whistlers,” Juris Kursietis’ “Oleg,” Hans Petter Moland’s “Out Stealing Horses” and Nadav Lapid‘s Golden Bear-winning “Synonyms.”
The complete list of nominees are as follows:
EUROPEAN FILM 2019
AN OFFICER AND A SPY
France, Italy
DIRECTED BY Roman Polanski
WRITTEN BY Robert Harris & Roman Polanski
PRODUCED BY Alain Goldman
LES MISÉRABLES
France
DIRECTED BY Ladj Ly
WRITTEN BY Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini & Alexis Manenti
PRODUCED BY Christophe Barral & Toufik Ayadi
PAIN AND GLORY
Spain
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Pedro Almodóvar
PRODUCED BY Agustín Almodóvar & Esther García
SYSTEM CRASHER
Germany
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Nora Fingscheidt
PRODUCED BY Peter Hartwig, Jonas Weydemann, Jakob D. Weydemann & Frauke Kolbmüller
THE FAVOURITE
UK, Ireland
DIRECTED BY Yorgos Lanthimos
WRITTEN BY Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara
PRODUCED BY Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday & Yorgos Lanthimos
THE TRAITOR
Italy, Germany, France, Brazil
DIRECTED BY Marco Bellocchio
WRITTEN BY Marco Bellocchio, Ludovica Rampoldi, Valia Santella & Francesco Piccolo
PRODUCED BY Giuseppe Caschetto & Simone Gattoni
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Pedro Almodóvar for PAIN AND GLORY
Marco Bellocchio for THE TRAITOR
Yorgos Lanthimos for THE FAVOURITE
Roman Polanski for AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Céline Sciamma for PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
EUROPEAN COMEDY
THE FAVOURITE
DITTE & LOUISE
TEL AVIV ON FIRE
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY – Prix Fipresci
ATLANTICS
ANIARA
BLIND SPOT
IRINA
LES MISERABLES
EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
BUNUEL IN THE LABYRINTH OF TURTLES
I LOST MY BODY
MARONA’s FANTASTIC TALE
THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL
EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY 2019
FOR SAMA
UK, USA
DIRECTED BY Waad al-Kateab & Edward Watts
PRODUCED BY Waad al-Kateab
HONEYLAND
North Macedonia
DIRECTED BY Ljubomir Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska
PRODUCED BY Atanas Georgiev
PUTIN’S WITNESSES
Latvia, Switzerland, Czech Republic
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Vitaly Mansky
PRODUCED BY Natalia Manskaia, Gabriela Bussmann, Filip Remunda & Vit Klusak
SELFIE
France, Italy
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Agostino Ferrente
PRODUCED BY Marc Berdugo, Barbara Conforti & Gianfilippo Pedote
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY MOTHER
LA SCOMPARSA DI MIA MADRE
Italy, USA
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Beniamino Barrese
PRODUCED BY Filippo Macelloni & Hayley Pappas
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2019
Olivia Colman in THE FAVOURITE
Trine Dyrholm in QUEEN OF HEARTS
Noémie Merlant & Adèle Haenel in PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Viktoria Miroshnichenko in BEANPOLE
Helena Zengel in SYSTEM CRASHER
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2019
Antonio Banderas in PAIN AND GLORY
Jean Dujardin in AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Pierfrancesco Favino in THE TRAITOR
Levan Gelbakhiani in AND THEN WE DANCED
Alexander Scheer in GUNDERMANN
Ingvar E. Sigurðsson in A WHITE, WHITE DAY
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2019
Pedro Almodóvar for PAIN AND GLORY
Marco Bellocchio, Ludovica Rampoldi, Valia Santella & Francesco Piccolo for THE TRAITOR Robert Harris & Roman Polanski for AN OFFICER AND A SPY
Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini & Alexis Manenti for LES MISÉRABLES
Céline Sciamma for PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE