European Film Awards 2026: 5 Belgian Films Shortlisted!
Belgian cinema stands out once again on the European stage! Five Belgian productions have made it onto the prestigious shortlist for the 2026 European Film Awards.
The European Film Awards are an annual celebration of European cinema, organized by the European Film Academy. The 2026 edition honors works from across Europe — feature films, documentaries, animated films, and short films — selected for their originality, artistic quality, and their ability to reflect the continent’s cultural diversity.
This year, 44 fiction feature films and 15 feature-length documentaries are included on the shortlist. Academy members will soon vote to determine the official nominees, ahead of the 2026 European Film Awards ceremony, which will take place in Berlin.
Two Belgian titles appear in the Feature Film Selection shortlist: Mother and Young Mothers.
The new film by Teona Strugar Mitevska, Mother, which opened the Orizzonti section at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, was produced by Entre Chien et Loup and is being sold internationally by Kinology. During the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Young Mothers by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne was presented in Competition, where it won the Best Screenplay Award. The film was produced by Les Films du Fleuve and is sold by Goodfellas.
In the Documentary Film Selection category, two Belgian productions are also included: Listen to the Voices and Hair, Paper, Water….
The debut feature film by Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Listen to the Voices, was produced by Twenty Nine Studio & Production and is sold by MoreThan Films. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Locarno Festival, where it received a Special Mention from the First Features Awards jury. Hair, Paper, Water…by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý also had its world premiere at Locarno this year. Presented in the “Filmmakers of the Present” section, the film won the Golden Leopard 2025. It was produced by Dérives and is sold by Lights On.
The second short film by Felipe Casanova, O Rio de Janeiro Continua Lindo, is also part of the shortlist. It was produced by Un Point Bleu Pâle and is sold by MoreThan Films.
The nominations will be revealed on the 18th of November 2025!
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