‘Sentimental Value’ among five films nominated for 2026 Lux Audience Award

Five European films have been nominated for the 2026 Lux European Audience Film Award.

The five nominees are: Brendan Canty’s Christy; Eva Libertad’s Deaf; Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident; Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender; and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

The Lux Audience Award is organised by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas. Citizens from across Europe, as well as the Members of the European Parliament, can vote for their favourite film on the LUX Audience Award rating platform. Their respective votes each count 50% towards the films’ final scores.

Irish filmmaker Brendan Canty’s Christy world premiered in the Generation 14plus competition at the Berlinale this year, winning the section’s Grand Prix. Sold by Charades, it is based on Canty’s short film of the same name and follows a 17-year-old after he’s thrown out of his suburban foster home and moves in with his estranged older half-brother in Cork.

Eva Libertad’s Deaf also world premiered at Berlin in the Panorama section. The drama is about the challenges of mother­hood from the perspective of a deaf woman, and is sold by Latido Films.

French director Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, stars Vicky Krieps as a woman whose life is turned upside down when she tells her ex-husband that she’s having romantic relationships with women. Be For Films handles sales.

Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and is France’s Oscar candidate. Sold by mk2 Films, it’s about a group of former political prisoners confronting the guard who they say once tortured them.

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value won the Grand Prix at Cannes, and is Norway’s Oscar entry. Also sold by mk2, the film follows two sisters who reunite with their estranged father, a once-renowned director who offers one of the sisters a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film.

The five nominated films were chosen by a panel of film professionals from across EU member states and announced today during an announcement event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Free screenings of the five films will take place in all EU countries until April 2026. For the first time, the shortlisted films will have subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

A ceremony to announce the winner will take place in the European Parliament in Brussels in April 2026.

For the 2025 edition of the award, more than 900 screenings of the shortlisted films were organised. 2025’s winner was Flow by Gints Zilbalodis.

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