European Film Awards 2021 favorites

French director Julia Ducournau's body-horror film has already won one of the world's most important film awards, the Golden Palm at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It has been nominated for best film, best director, best actress and best actor at the European Film Awards.

Veteran actor Anthony Hopkins shines in this drama as a father who has dementia. "The Father" by director Florian Zeller was nominated for the Golden Globe, and Hopkins took home an Oscar for best actor. Now the film enters the race in the film, director, screenplay and leading actor categories.

This Bosnian-Serbian civil war drama focuses on the character of Aida, who works as a translator for the UN during the conflict in 1995 — with fatal consequences. Jasna Duricic (pictured) hopes to win the lead actress award, while director Jasmila Zbanic is up for best director, best screenplay and best film.

Romanian director Radu Jude enters the race with his controversial Berlinale winner "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn." While the movie about a teacher who releases an amateur porn video was dismissed by some critics as fluff, it is also a highly political film. The movie was nominated for the European Film Awards in two categories: best director and best screenplay.

Paolo Sorrentino has three chances to win a European Film Award with "The Hand of God." It's up for best film, best director and best screenplay and tells the story of a young man's life in 1980s Naples, roughly based on the director's own experiences. Sorrentino returned to his home city of Naples to film it.

"Promising Young Woman" stars English actress Carey Mulligan as a former medical student who wants to avenge the death of her friend. At this year's Oscars, Mulligan was nominated for best actress in a leading role, yet only the screenplay received an award. That may change at the European Film Awards as Mulligan gets another shot at the top acting prize.

Frenchman Tahar Rahim plays Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi in the film "The Mauritanian" and was nominated for best actor. The film is based on Slahi's memoirs and features a top-notch cast including Jodi Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and Rahim, who won the European Film Award in 2009 and two Cesars in 2010 for his role in "The Prophet."

Renowned for his roles in cult films including "Victoria" (2015) and "Undine" (2020), German actor Franz Rogowski portrays in "Great Freedom" a man who is repeatedly sent to prison in post-war Germany for being gay. The Austrian drama directed by Sebastian Meise is also nominated as best European university film.

Like "Promising Young Woman," "Lamb" is also nominated in the "European Discovery" category. In the Icelandic-Swedish-Polish co-production, a childless couple makes a shocking discovery on their sheep farm. A dark, fairy-tale-like film unfolds. Last month, the movie already won the award for best special effects.

Babyn Jar is a ravine near Kyiv. On September 29 and 30, 1941, a German Sonderkommando 4a of a special deployment unit shot 33,771 Jews there, with the help of two Ukrainian police battalions. Director Sergei Loznitsa uses rarely-seen footage from archives and is considered a favorite for best documentary. He grew up in Kyiv and studied film in Moscow.

Director Maria Speth's (left) film about elementary school teacher Dieter Bachmann (right) and his relationship with his students won the Lola prize for best documentary at the German Film Awards and a Silver Bear at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival. At the European Film Awards held on December 11, yet another prize may be on the horizon.