The Sentimental Value of Joachim Trier wins the European Film Awards

Joachim Trier Sentimental value won the prize at the 38th edition of the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday evening.

The film won Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter for Eskil Vogt and Trier, as well as Best European Actor and Best European Actress for Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve respectively and Best Music.

The Cannes Grand Prix winner went into the ceremony as the favorite with other strong contenders including Oliver Laxe’s Moroccan drama. SiratMascha Schilinski’s first film Falling sound and that of Jafar Panahi It was just an accident.

Laxe Sirat dominated the craft awards with awards for Best European Production Designer, Best European Sound Design, Best European Editor, Best European Casting Director and Best European Cinematographer.

In other prizes, that of Ugo Bienvenu Arco ccontinued its string of awards to win the award for Best European Animated Feature Film.

The work, produced by Natalie Portman with Sophie Mas under the Paris and New York banner MountainA and Félix de Givry, has already won the best film prize at the Annecy International Film Festival and is on the Bafta longlist for best animated film.

Iranian director Panahi opened the ceremony in Berlin with a passionate appeal asking the world not to remain silent in the face of the “unprecedented massacre” taking place in Iran.

He was speaking ten days after the hard-line Iranian government began a brutal crackdown on nationwide popular protests. At least 3,000 protesters were reported killed and another 18,000 arrested, although Panahi reiterated the death toll of 12,000 in his speech.

“It is not just one country’s pain if the world does not respond today to this blatant violence. Not only Iran, but the entire world is in danger. Violence left unanswered becomes normalized and when it becomes normalized, it spreads and becomes contagious,” he said.

“When the truth is crushed in one place, freedom suffocates everywhere. Then no one is safe. Everywhere in the world, not in Iran, not in Europe, not in America… this is precisely why today, as filmmakers and artists more than ever, if we are disappointed by politicians, we must at least refuse to remain silent because silence in times of crime is not a silence of neutrality, silence is a participation in darkness.”

Honorary awards were also given to Norwegian cinema legend Liv Ullmann and Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the European Achievement in World Cinema Award respectively.

Ullmann used his acceptance speech to express the role of cinema in capturing human reality as well as his dismay that US President Donald Trump was recently presented with his Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Among other awards, Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski, co-heads of German company Komplizen Film, received the previously announced Eurimages International Co-production Award.

The trio shouted at Sentimental valuethe latest in a long line of co-productions that also includes The whistlers by Corneliu Porumboiu, My wife’s story by Ildikó Enyedi, About dry herbs by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Bodice by Marie Kreutzer, Yes by Nadav Lapid among many others.

The full list of winners of the European Film Awards 2026:

Best European Film
Sentimental value by Joachim Trier

Best European Director
Joachim Sort for Sentimental value

Best European Actor
Stellan Skarsgard for Sentimental value

Best European Actress
Renate Reinsve for Sentimental value

Best European Animated Feature Film
Bow (France)
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu

Best European Documentary
Fire or Dead! (Croatia, Slovenia, Italy)
Directed by Igor Bezinović

European cinematographer
Mauro Hercé for Sirat

Best European screenwriter
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Sort for Sentimental value

Best European Editor
Cristóbal Fernández for Sirat

European composer (Original music)
Hania Rani for Sentimental value

European Casting Director
Nadia Acimi, Luís Bertolo and María Rodrigo for Sirat

Best European makeup artist and hairstylist
Torsten Witte for Bugonia

European sound designer
Laïa Casanovas for Sirat

European decorator
Laïa Ateca for Sirat

European costume designer
Sabrina Kramer for Falling sound

European discovery – FIPRESCI Prize
While falling (UK, Portugal)
Directed by Laura Carreira

European Young Audience Award
Siblings (Italy)
Directed by Greta Scarano

European Short Film – Vimeo Prize
City of poets
Directed by John Smith