The European Film Awards (EFAs) have long styled themselves as “Europe’s answer to the Oscars”, even if, in terms of boosting commercial successes at the box office, their impact has been negligible. But as American studios increasingly prioritise franchise sequels over serious drama, and European films vie for major trophies outside the “best international feature” silo, the EFAs are feeling emboldened about becoming a major tastemaker for grownup cinema.

This year, the European Film Academy has for the first time moved its annual jamboree from December to the middle of the US awards season, right between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.

“Hollywood has stopped making movies for adults, with a few exceptions”, said Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for the Hollywood Reporter. “That leaves room for the Europeans, who only make films for adults”.

Stellan Skarsgård won a Golden Globe for Sentimental Value on Sunday. Will he be victorious again at tomorrow’s EFAs? Photograph: Tommaso Boddi/2026GG/Penske Media/Getty Images

Taking place at Berlin’s House of World Cultures this Saturday, the awards’ 38th edition could be a night of triumphs for Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s family drama Sentimental Value, which is nominated in five categories including best European film.

The meta-tale of familial estrangement and artistic competition has already scooped the Grand Prix at Cannes and a best supporting actor Golden Globe for Swedish veteran Stellan Skarsgård, and is seen as a major contender at the Oscars in March. “It’s the kind of serious dramatic film that Hollywood is generating fewer and fewer of,” said Roxborough.

After the Oscars expanded their best picture nominee count from five to 10 films in 2009, there has been a marked uptick in non-English-language films in the running. Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, French film-maker Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, British director Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and French director Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez all gained best picture nominations in recent years.

At the EFAs, Trier’s film faces competition from Spanish director Óliver Laxe’s Mad-Max-meets-Stalker thriller Sirāt, with four nominations, and German newcomer Mascha Schilinski’s The Sound of Falling and Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi’s French co-produced It Was Just an Accident, each nominated in three categories.

Saturday’s ceremony – which in place of a host will be “curated” by Irish documentary-maker Mark Cousins as a “live film essay” – is part of a long-held plan to to reposition the awards as a more glamorous event in the cultural calendar. Unlike in previous years, distributors have held special screenings of nominee films in order to canvas for votes, and Roxborough said there are signs that some European distributors were starting to shape their marketing campaigns around the awards.

Mad Max meets Stalker … Sirāt is nominated for three awards. Photograph: AP

“European cinema has gone on the front foot and repositioned itself to take on Hollywood – by moving its dates this year to the middle of January,” said British producer Mike Downey, the outgoing chair of the European Film Academy. “Our major overhaul and rebranding radically boosts our profile and, indeed, European cinema’s importance in the international awards season.”

While the EFA’s shortlisted films are resolutely art-house, Hollywood blockbuster productions continued to dominate the European box office in 2025. Yet strong showings for select homegrown productions are giving European distributors grounds for hope.

“This year has given us irrefutable proof that German film shouldn’t make itself smaller than it is,” wrote German broadsheet Süddeutsche Zeitung at the end of last year. French films, meanwhile, recorded a 6% rise in international markets in 2025.

“It is not just in the culture wars that Europe is holding its own – it’s at the box office as well,” said Downey. “If cinema admissions are anything to go by in the age of the streamer, Europe and the US are neck and neck on their respective turfs with $8.4 billion and $8.5 billion respectively in 2024 – and 2025 looking similar. So, there’s everything to play for.”