‘Close’, ‘Holy Spider’ & ‘Triangle Of Sadness’ Lead European Film Awards Nominations

Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont’s Close, Danish director Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider and Swedish director Ruben Ôstlund’s Triangle Of Sadness lead the nominations for the 35th European Film Awards, which were unveiled today.

The films have each made it into four categories including best European Film, Best Director and Screenwriter.

All three films debuted at Cannes this year, where Triangle Of Sadness clinched the Palme d’Or; Close, the Grand Prize (in ex-aequo with Claire Denis’s Stars At Noon); and Holy Spider, best actress for Zar Amir-Ebrahimi.

Close and Holy Spider are also the entries for their respective countries of Belgium and Denmark in the Academy Awards Best International Film category this year.

Further hot contenders include Austrian director Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, with three nominations, including best actress for Vicky Krieps, and Berlinale Berlinale Golden Lion Alcarràs with two nominations. Venice Golden Lion winnerSaint Omer picked up one nomination for Best European Director for Alice Diop.

Contenders in the Best Documentary section include Mariupolis 2 by the late documentarian Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was killed earlier this year while gathering material for the film in the Russian-occupied city, and Mark Cousins’s March On Rome exploring the rise of Benito Mussolini in 1922 and the contemporary legacy of his fascist rule.

The awards ceremony, overseen by the European Film Academy, will take place on December 10 in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík. The event will be preceded this year by the academy’s inaugural edition of the Month of European Film.

The nominations in the key categories of the spanning European Film, Director, Actor, and Actress are voted on by the 4,400 members of the academy in a three-stage process.

The nominations in the categories of European Comedy, Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI, Animated Feature Film and Short Film have been selected by nomination committees consisting of a diverse range of invited European experts and are then voted on by the entire academy.

The winners of the Excellence Awards in the categories of European Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Make-up & Hair, Original Score, Sound and Visual Effects will be determined by an eight-member jury consisting of representatives of the different arts and crafts and will be announced on 23 November.

As previously announced German director Margarethe von Trotta will be honored with the European Lifetime Achievement award, while Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman will be feted with the European Achievement in World Cinema award

Italian director March Bellocchio will receive the Award for European Innovative Storytelling for his mini-series Exterior Night.

The Full List of EFA 2022 Nominations:

European Film

Alcarràs (Sp-It)

Director Carla Simón, producers María Zamora, Stefan Schmitz, Tono Folguera & Giovanni Pompili

Close (Bel-Fr-Neth)

Director Lukas Dhont, producers Michiel Dhont, Dirk Impens, Michel Saint-Jean, Laurette Schillings, Arnold Heslenfeld, Frans van Gestel & Jacques-Henri Bronckart

Corsage (Austria-Lux-Ger-France)

Director Marie Kreutzer, producers Alexander Glehr, Johanna Scherz, Bernard Michaux, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade & Jean-Christophe Reymond

Holy Spider (Den-Ger-Swe-Fr)

Director by Ali Abbasi, producers Sol Bondy & Jacob Jarek

Triangle Of Sadness (Swe-Ger-Fr-UK)

Directed by Ruben Östlund, producers Erik Hemmendorff & Philippe Bober

European Documentary

A House Made Of Splinters (Den-Swe-Fin-Ukr)

Director Simon Lereng Wilmont

Girl Gang (Switz)

Director Susanne Regina Meures (Switzerland)

Mariupolis 2 (Lithuania-Fr-Ger)

Director Mantas Kvedaravičius

The Balcony Movie (Pol)