A genre-bending musical about a trans cartel boss and a Spanish veteran director’s English-language debut lead the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards, with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Peréz and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door both up for honours in four categories.

The French and Spanish auteurs gained nominations for best film, best director and best screenwriter, the European Film Academy announced on Tuesday ahead of this year’s ceremony in the Swiss lakeside city of Lucerne on 7 December.

Trans actor Karla Sofía Gascón, who won a joint best actress prize at Cannes for her starring titular role as a Mexican cartel boss turned human rights champion in Audiard’s film, is also nominated as best European actress.

Tilda Swinton is nominated in the same category for her performance as a war correspondent dying of cancer in Almodóvar’s film, which won the Golden Lion at Venice this year.

The European Film Awards aim to recognise the best films of the last 12 months from geographical Europe, meaning works from EU and non-EU member states are included. British director Andrea Arnold is up for a best European director prize for her coming-of-age drama Bird, with German actor Franz Rogowski nominated as best actor for the titular role in the same film.

Under new rules announced last summer, films nominated for best European documentary and best animated feature film are also eligible in the best European film category, meaning the list of nominees is longer than in previous years.

Documentaries contending for the top prize in Lucerne this year include French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s Berlinale-winning short documentary Dahomey, about the restitution of colonial-era artefacts to modern-day Benin, Palestinian-Norwegian co-production No Other Land, which charts the eradication of Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, and Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.

Presented annually since 1988, the European Film Awards are often seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards taking place a few months later. In 2023, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall won four of the five major prizes before scooping an Oscar for best original screenplay in March this year.

This year’s event in Lucerne will mark the last time the ceremony takes place in December, with the dates shifting to mid-January from 2026.

Full list of nominations

Best European film

Bye Bye Tiberias
Dahomey
Emilia Perez
Flow
In Limbo
Living Large
No Other Land
Savages
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sultana’s Dream
The Room Next Door
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Substance
They Shot the Piano Player
Vermiglio

Best European documentary

Bye Bye Tiberias
Dahomey
In Limbo
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Best European director

Andrea Arnold (Bird)
Jacques Audiard (Emilia Peréz)
Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door)
Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig)
Maura Delpero (Vermiglio)

Best European actress

Renate Reinsve (Armand)
Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Peréz)
Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with the Needle)
Vic Carmen Sonne (The Girl with the Needle)
Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door)

Best European actor

Franz Rogowski (Bird)
Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)
Lars Eidinger (Dying)
Daniel Craig (Queer)
Abou Sangare (Souleymane’s Story)

Best European screenwriter

Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez)
Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek (The Girl With the Needle)
Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door)
Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig)
Coralie Fargeat (The Substance)