Spanish cinema emerges triumphant from the nominations for the European Film Awards which will be held in Lucerne on December 7. Pedro Almodóvar will be one of the most heard names that evening thanks to the four nominations obtained by his new film, The Room Next Door, which after winning the Golden Lion in Venice is confirmed as one of films of the year thanks to its mentions such as Best film, direction, screenplay and actress for Tilda Swinton. Almodóvar’s protagonist will face the other Spanish presence announced this Tuesday, that of Karla Sofía Gascón, candidate of the French Emilia Pérez, the narco trans musical by Jacques Audiard for which she won the best actress award at Cannes with the rest of the cast.
Additionally, the new awards rules mean that films nominated in the Best Documentary and Best Animated Film categories can also win Best Film, along with two other Spanish films, “They Shot the Pianist”, by Fernando Trueba, and “The Dream of the Sultana”, by Isabel Herguera, are among the fifteen finalists in the premier category.
The room next door is also the big favorite, since with Emilia Pérez, by Jacques Audiard, it is the only one to have four nominations. The two favorites will compete on everything: film, direction, script and actress. The third in the running – with three nominations – will be The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the film by Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof, exiled and which counts as a German production in these awards as well as at the next Oscars.
The five nominated fictions are completed by the gory surprise from Cannes; The Substance -which also received a mention in the Best Screenplay category-; and the Venetian surprise, the Italian Vermiglio, which won second prize at the Lido and obtained nominations here for best film and best direction. In the quintet of directors, the Academy replaced Coralie Fargeat with Andrea Arnold, the legendary British filmmaker who obtained this nomination with Bird and that of best actor for Franz Rogowski.
