The European Film Awards, the European equivalent of the Oscars, will be moved to mid-January 2026 from the traditional December slot.
The European Film Academy, which oversees the awards, said moving the date was part of an ongoing strategy to reposition and rebrand the event and its work.
The 36th edition this year and the 37th edition in 2024 will both take place in December as before. The 38th edition will then be postponed until mid-January 2026.
The Academy believes that moving the awards to the beginning of the calendar year will give European nominees and winners much more visibility in the international awards season, including the Oscars.
The EFA nominations are announced in mid-November each year, giving more time to promote the nominated films.
Academy members who are entitled to vote can watch the films on the Academy’s VOD platform or in film screenings if the nominated films are released during this period, or as part of programs organized by the Academy itself, such as e.g. B. the European Film Month.
“European cinema is one of the great dominant creative and cultural forces in the global film hierarchy,” said Mike Downey, president of the European Film Academy.
“The board’s decision to reposition the European Film Awards in December after nearly four decades is a fundamentally positive shift as the event finally lands where it belongs: front and center in the awards season, where it can have maximum impact for European audiences that candidates can reach and strengthen the Academy’s role as a key player in the global prize game.”
The Academy’s CEO, Matthijs Wouter Knol, said the change would immediately lead to the extension of the new European Film Month public initiative.
The first edition, which ran for a month since mid-November last year, simultaneously celebrates European cinema in 45 countries.
“In the coming years, we will expand this program into a real awards season for films from Europe. With the season first established on our continent, we want to explore strategic partnerships and reach viewers in other parts of the world from 2026,” says Knol.
“Fans of European cinema live everywhere. We want to make people aware that European cinema exists, that it is easier to discover. We want to present European films where people prefer to watch films – from cinemas to streaming platforms.”
According to the current awards calendar, the European Film Awards are part of the international award series between the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Oscars.
Scheduled for mid-January, the slot will take place the weekend after the Golden Globes and before the end of the Oscar nomination voting process.
The European Film Academy said it made its decision in consultation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and BAFTA, as well as the management of festivals such as Sundance, Gothenburg, Rotterdam and the Berlinale, which all find taking place shortly after the upcoming European Film Awards weekend.
Source: Deadline
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