‘Cold War’ Leads European Film Awards Nominations

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, a love story set against the political upheaval of a divided Europe, leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFA) with five, including best film, director and acting mentions for leads Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot.

The black-and-white drama premiered in Cannes, where it won best director honors for Pawlikowski. Cold War is Poland’s submission this year in the foreign-language film Oscar category. The director’s last film, Ida, won the foreign-language film Oscar in 2015.

Competing with Cold War for the title of best European film of 2018 are Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, a neo-realist drama set in modern-day Naples; the Swedish fantasy tale Border, from director Ali Abbasi; Lukas Dhont’s transgender dance drama Girl; and Alice Rohwacher’s socially critical fable Happy as Lazzaro.

Garrone, Abbasi and Rohwacher also picked up best director mentions alongside Pawlikowski, as did Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz, who was nominated for his anti-war drama Foxtrot.

In the acting categories, always the most competitive at the EFAs, Cold War star Kulig will go up against Marie Baumer, who plays Austrian acting legend Romy Schneider in 3 Days in Quiberon; Icelandic actress Halldora Geirharosdottir for her double role as twins in Woman at War; Alba Rohrwacher in Happy as Lazzaro; Barbara Lennie as the titular artist in Petra; and Eva Melander as a troll in love in Border.

Rupert Everett picked up a best actor nomination for his turn as Oscar Wilde in Everett’s passion project The Happy Prince, but he will face tough competition from his fellow nominees: Tomasz Kot as the love-wrought Wiktor in Cold War; Jakob Cedergren, who gives a master class performance in every scene of Gustav Moller’s The Guilty; Sverrir Gudnason, who played Bjorn Borg in Janus Metz’s Borg vs. McEnroe; Marcello Fonte as the downtrodden dog groomer in Dogman; and Victor Polster’s star-making transgender turn in Girl.

Everett is one of the few British EFA nominees this year, but British filmmakers are frontrunners in two categories: Nick Park’s claymation comedy First Man looks like a strong contender for the European animated feature film prize, and Armando Iannucci is likely to take home the best European comedy film honor for his dark political satire The Death of Stalin.

The winners of the 2018 European Film Awards will be announced Dec. 15 at a gala ceremony in Seville, Spain.

The full list of nominees is below.

European Actor 2018
Jakob Cedergren in The Guilty
Rupert Everett in The Happy Prince
Marcello Fonte in Dogman
Sverrir Gudnason in Borg vs. McEnroe
Tomasz Kot in Cold War
Victor Polster in Girl

European Film 2018
Border, dir. Ali Abbasi
Cold War, dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
Dogman, dir. Matteo Garrone
Girl, dir. Lukas Dhont
Happy as Lazzaro, dir. Alice Rohrwacher

European Documentary 2018
A Woman Captured, dir. Bernadett Tuza-Ritter
Bergman — A Year in a Life, dir. Jane Magnusson
Of Fathers and Sons, dir. Talal Derki
The Distant Barking of Dogs, dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont
The Silence of Others, dirs. Almudena Carracedo & Robert Bahar

European Director 2018
Ali Abbasi for Border
Matteo Garrone for Dogman
Samuel Maoz for Foxtrot
Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War
Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro

European Actress 2018
Marie Baumer in 3 Days in Quiberon
Halldora Geirharosdottir in Woman at War
Joanna Kulig in Cold War
Bárbara Lennie in Petra
Eva Melander in Border
Alba Rohrwacher in Happy as Lazzaro

European Actor 2018
Jakob Cedergren in The Guilty
Rupert Everett in The Happy Prince
Marcello Fonte in Dogman
Sverrir Gudnason in Borg vs. McEnroe
Tomasz Kot in Cold War
Victor Polster in Girl

European Screenwriter 2018
Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklof & John Ajvide Lindqvist for Border
Matteo Garrone, Ugo Chiti & Massimo Gaudioso for Dogman
Gustav Möller & Emil Nygaard Albertsen for The Guilty
Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War
Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro

European Comedy 2018
C’est La Vie, dirs. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Diamantino, dirs. Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt
The Death of Stalin, dir. Armando Iannucci

European Discovery/Prix Fipresci
Girl, dir. Lukas Dhont
One Day, dir. Zsofia Szilagyi
Scary Mother, dir. Ana Urushadze
The Guilty, dir. Gustav Moller
Those Who Are Fine, dir. Cyril Schaublin
Touch Me Not, dir. Adina Pintilie

European Animated Feature Film
Another Day of Life, dirs. Raul de la Fuente, Damian Nenow
Early Man, dir. Nick Park
The Breadwinner, dir. Nora Twomey
White Fang, dir. Alexandre Espigares