Leonie Benesch and Sandra Hülser are hoping for the European Film Award for Best Actress 2023 on December 9th

von Patricia Batlle

The European Film Awards will be awarded in Berlin on Saturday. They honor outstanding works of European cinema. Five of them are competing in the “Best European Film” category. These include the drama “Falling Leaves” by the Finn Aki Kaurismäki and two films with Sandra Hülser: “Anatomy of a Case” by the French Justine Triet and the British-American-Polish co-production “The Zone of Interest” by the Brit Jonathan Glazer. Also the Polish drama “Green Border” by Agnieszka Holland and the Italian refugee drama “Io Capitano” by Mateo Garrone. Both Triet and Glazer are nominated in the Best Director category, as are the Polish Agnieszka Holland, Aki Kaurismäki and the Italian Matteo Garrone.

Sandra Hülser twice nominated for “Best European Actress)

Sandra Hülser can hope for the Best European Actress award for both roles. Here they are too Hamburg’s Leonie Benesch (“The Teacher’s Room”), the Georgian Eka Chavleishvili (“Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry”), the Finnish Alma Pöysti (“Fallen Leaves”), and the British Mia McKenna-Bruce were nominated. In Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut “How to have sex” she plays a teenager who hopes to have the best vacation of her life with other school friends. The film opens in German cinemas this week. “The Teacher’s Room” was largely filmed in Hamburg – and is Germany’s hope in the Oscar race.

Dane Mads Mikkelsen nominated for “King’s Land”

Thomas Schubert is hoping for the Best European Actor category “Red Sky” by Christian Petzold, Jussi Vatanen for “Falling Leaves”, Christian Friedel for “The Zone of Interest” and Josh O’Connor for the Italian drama “La Chimera” by Alice Rohrwacher for a prize. The Dane Mads Mikkelsen is also nominated here. In the production “King’s Land”, supported by the Moin Film Fund, he plays a soldier who wants to convert barren land in Denmark into arable land.

VIDEO: Film star Mads Mikkelsen on the red carpet at the film festival (2 min)

“Maurice the Cat” nominated for Best European Animated Film

Five films compete in the animation category. In addition to the Spanish film “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger and the Italo-French production “Chicken for Linda” – which was shown at the Michel Filmfest Hamburg, the film was co-produced and animated in HamburgGerman-British film “Maurice, the Tomcat” is one of the hopefuls.

Further information

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The production was complex; it took the makers a whole week to produce an eight-second animated film. 2 mins

Further information

2 Min

The elaborate animated film “Maurice the Tomcat” was produced in Hamburg and will even be shown in US cinemas. 2 mins

The Hamburg native is a European Shooting Star and received Lola as Best Actress for her leading role in “The Teacher’s Room”. more

The actress talks about her role in the film “Anatomy of a Case”, about truth and ambiguity – and about the meaning of awards. more

European cinema is in crisis. The presentation of the European Film Awards offers an opportunity to take stock. more

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After Jane Campion and Julia Ducournau, the Frenchwoman received a Palme d’Or for her court drama “Anatomy of a Fall” with Sandra Hülser. 4 mins

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The actress received the Hamburg Film Festival’s award at the German premiere of the legal thriller “Anatomy of a Case”. more