Joachim Trier’s ‘Sentimental Value’ Sweeps Board At European Film Awards
The drama scooped Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter for Eskil Vogt and Trier, as well as Best European Actor and European Best Actress for Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve respectively, and Best Score.
The Cannes Grand Prix winner went into the ceremony as the frontrunner with other strong contenders including Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe’s Morocco-set drama Sirāt, German director Mascha Schilinski’s debut film Sound of Falling and Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident.
There were also honorary prizes for Norwegian acting legend Liv Ullmann and Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the European Achievement in World Cinema Award respectively.
Ullmann used her acceptance speech to express the role of cinema in capturing human reality as well as her consternation at U.S. President Donald Trump being recently presented by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado with her Nobel Peace Prize.
In the other awards, Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach, and Janine Jackowski, co-heads of Germany’s Komplizen Film, were feted with the previously announced Eurimages International Co-Production Award.
The trio gave a shoutout to Sentimental Value, the latest of a long line of coproductions which also include The Whistlers by Corneliu Porumboiu, The Story of My Wife by Ildikó Enyedi, About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Corsage by Marie Kreutzer and Yes by Nadav Lapid among many others.
The Full-List of 2026 European Film Awards Winners:
Best European Film
Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier
Best European Director
Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value
Best European Actor
Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value
Best European Actress
Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value
Best European Animated Feature Film
Arco (France)
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu
Best European Documentary
Fiume o Morte! (Croatia, Slovenia, Italy)
Directed by Igor Bezinović
European Cinematographer
Mauro Herce for Sirāt
Best European Screenwriter
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value
Best European Editor
Cristóbal Fernández for Sirāt
European Composer (Original Score)
Hania Rani for Sentimental Value
European Casting Director
Nadia Acimi, Luís Bértolo & María Rodrigo for Sirāt
Best European Make-up & Hair Artist
Torsten Witte for Bugonia
European Sound Designer
Laia Casanovas for Sirāt
European Production Designer
Laia Ateca for Sirāt
European Costume Designer
Sabrina Krämer for Sound Of Falling
European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI
On Falling (United Kingdom, Portugal)
Directed by Laura Carreira
European Young Audience Award
Siblings (Italy)
Directed by Greta Scarano
European Short Film – Prix Vimeo
City of Poets
Directed by John Smith
