30th European Film Awards: Guests and Presenters

Only four more days before European filmmakers, EFA Members, guests, nominees and winners will gather to celebrate European cinema at its finest at the 30th European Film Awards in Berlin!

On this special occasion the ceremony will, of course, celebrate this year’s films and achievements but it will also shed a special light on some of the films and people that have accompanied the EFAs throughout the past 30 years.

Both script and set design pick up this idea and guests and spectators will find references to some of these people and their films throughout the ceremony. An ensemble of Johannes Bah Kuhnke (Sweden), Alex Brendemühl (Spain), Anna Geislerová (Czech Republic), Dave Johns (UK), Anamaria Marinca (Romania), Palina Rojinski (Germany) and Ivan Shvedoff (Russia) will bring to live some particularly captivating scenes from the rich diversity of European cinema.

Joining them onstage to announce and present the winners of the European Film Awards in a total of 21 categories will be actress Elena Anaya (Spain) and her male colleagues Pierfrancesco Favino (Italy), Jack Reynor (Ireland), and Stellan Skarsgård (Sweden), as well as Wim Wenders, the President of the European Film Academy, and Agnieszka Holland, Chairwoman of the EFA Board.

Johan Heldenbergh & Veerle Baetens will perform “If I needed You” from the film THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOW. Other guests will include former award recipients like directors Maren Ade (Germany) and Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland), actress Sandra Hüller (Germany) and actor Peter Simonischek (Austria), as well as EFA founding members Jörn Donner, Stephen Frears, Peter Lilienthal, Carlos Saura, Hanna Schygulla, István Szabó and Volker Schlöndorff.

Julie Delpy will be honoured with the European Achievement in World Cinema award, Aleksandr Sokurov will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Cedomir Kolar will get the European Co-Production Award 2017 – Prix EURIMAGES. Among the guests at the ceremony will also be sound designer Samir Fočo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), composer Raf Keunen (Belgium), costume designer Vassilia Rozana (Greece), hair & make-up artist Susana Sanchez (Spain), and production designer Tonino Zera (Italy), all of them members of the excellence awards jury.

The 900 guests at Haus der Berliner Festspiele and all those at home, following the livestream or watching the broadcast, will be welcomed by Thomas Hermanns, host of the 30th European Film Awards. On www.europeanfilmawards.eu the livestream will start at 17.00 with an interview program from the red carpet with German film journalist Knut Elstermann and continue with the ceremony from 19.00. On Facebook Live there will be a backstage live feed.

Since its successful pan-European launch in November 2022 Europe’s own film and award season, the Month of European Film has been growing continuously: Starting with 35 partners from 35 countries in 2022, the Month of European Film collaborated in 2024 with 108 partners from 42 countries. The number of screenings of European films within the initiative rocketed from 1,553 in 2022 to 9,310 in 2023 to 16,140 screenings in the 2024 edition. Admissions increased from 61,199 in 2022 to 164,206 in 2023 to almost half a million admissions (467,697) in the last year. The participating partners reported that their activities during the Month of European Film increased audience interest in European films and it also makes them want to programme more European films in the future. This is the result of an evaluation with the participating partners of this unique initiative.

“The European Film Academy senses growing interest in Europe for an ‘award season’ celebrating the best European cinema has to offer,” says Mattthijs Wouter Knol, Academy CEO and Director. “With the Month of European Film we build a network and a window for the simultaneous celebration of European cinema and to bring the diversity of European film closer to home for many people: first of all to their local cinema. Only three years into the initiative we are proud and happy that the Month of European Film is becoming more and more visible across Europe and is attracting a significantly growing number of visitors from Norway to Malta, from Portugal to Georgia. In the upcoming years until the European Film Academy’s 40th anniversary in 2028, we will further build a European ‘award season’ with our partners. It is time to deepen the awareness of European film culture. It is time to bring us as Europeans closer together through the culture and values we share: cinema has that power.”

Feedback from the audience regarding the Month of European Film was also very positive: The partners reported that in an audience survey cinema visitors from across Europe saw the Month of European Film as an important celebration of European culture. They said the Month of European Film has raised their interest in European films significantly and that they would like to see more European films. It also made them feel more united with fellow Europeans.

This year, the Month of European Film will start with the nominations announcement on Tuesday 18 November 2025, with cinemas all over Europe offering a tailor-made programme for their local audience. The Month of European Film will have its grand finale on Saturday 17 January 2026 with the celebration of the European Film Awards in Berlin.

The Month of European Film is an initiative of the European Film Academy supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, in co-operation with Europa Cinemas, CICAE, MUBI, DAFilms, Festival Scope, as well as numerous other European and local partners.

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