In the footsteps of Justine Triet, who scored a hit with Anatomy of a Fall last year, Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez won five major awards at the 37th European Film Awards. An evening in which French cinema shone brightly.
The 37th European Film Awards – the “European Oscars” to some – took place on Saturday, December 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland. During a ceremony in which French director Jacques Audiard took to the stage five times (accompanied by Karla Sofía Gascón, awarded Best Actress) to evoke Emilia Pérez, it was French cinema in all its diversity that was celebrated, with another French film, also revealed at the Cannes Film Festival, on the winners' list: The Story of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine won Best Actor for its Guinean protagonist Abou Sangare, as well as Best Sound.
Flow by Gints Zilbalodis, a co-production between Latvia, France, and Belgium – which has currently racked up 500,000 admissions in France and is gearing up for an all-out international 2025 – won the Best Animated Feature Film award.
Last but not least, the prize for Best European Short Film went to The Man Who Couldn't Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević, co-produced for France by Les Films Norfolk already winner (among other awards) of the Palme d'or received at the last Cannes Film Festival.
Also worth mentioning is The Substance, the American-British film by French director Coralie Fargeat, which won two technical awards (Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography).
---
Selected by the CNC commission members to represent France at the Oscars 2025, Emilia Pérez will – or will not – win a place on the first shortlist (15 films) on December 17, before the announcement on January 17, 2025 of the final shortlist of five titles competing for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, to be presented on March 2 in Los Angeles. The film, produced by Pascal Caucheteux for Why Not Productions and Jacques Audiard via his Page 114 set-up, won the Jury Prize and a group Best Actress award for its four lead actresses at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
The European Film Academy currently has 5,000 members, made up of filmmakers, performers, critics, and technicians, who vote each year for the continent's best films, and has done so since 1988. French actress Juliette Binoche is currently President of the Academy.
The French films awarded at the 37th European Film Awards
- Best Film: Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
- Best Producer: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
- Best Actor: Abou Sangare for The Story of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine
- Best Actress: Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
- Best Screenwriter: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
- Best Editing: Juliette Welfling for Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
- Best Sound: Marc-Olivier Brullé, Charlotte Butrak, Pierre Bariaud, Rodrigo Díaz, and Samuel Aïchoun for The Story of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine`
- Best Animated Feature Film: Flow by Gints Zilbalodis (minority-French co-production)
- Best Make-Up & Hair: Evalotte Oosterop for When the Light Breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson (minority-French co-production)
- Best Short film - Prix Vimeo: The Man Who Couldn't Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević
For the full awards' list, click here
