Spot on in Latin America for Europe’s finest films 

For the second time, European Film Promotion (EFP) is presenting the Latin American Critics’ Award for European Films. 37 film critics and journalists from 13 Latin American countries will choose three favourites among 19 nominated films, before crowning the winning film at the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG) on 7 June 2025. 

Nominated by 19 national film promotion institutes from throughout Europe, the shortlist includes outstanding feature-length films which celebrated international premieres at recent renowned film festivals and were honoured with prestigious film awards:

Moon by Kurdwin Ayub (Austria), Night Call by Michiel Blanchart (Belgium, France), Fiume o Morte! by Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia), Smaragda - I Got Thick Skin and I Can't Jump by Emilios Avraam (Cyprus), Waves by Jiří Mádl (Czech Republic, Slovakia), Beginnings by Jeanette Nordahl (Denmark, Sweden, Belgium), My Partners by Eva Kübar (Estonia), Ari by Léonor Serraille (France, Belgium), Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti (Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar), Meat by Dimitris Nakos (Greece), When the Light Breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland, Netherlands, Coratia, France), Christy by Brendan Canty (Ireland, UK), Breathing Underwater by Eric Lamhène (Luxembourg, Belgium), Three Days of Fish by Peter Hoogendoorn (Netherlands, Belgium), The Best of All Worlds by Rita Nunes (Portugal), The Hungarian Dressmaker by Iveta Grófová (Slovakia, Czech Republic), Little Trouble Girls by Urška Djukić (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia), DEAF by Eva Libertad (Spain) and Late Shift / Heldin by Petra Volpe (Switzerland, Germany).

The 37 jury members from 13 Latin American countries are currently busy selecting before deciding on the three finalists. In a next step, they will vote for the winning film to receive the Latin American Critics’ Award at the Guadalajara Film Festival on 7 June 2025. 

In 2024, EFP launched the Latin American Critics’ Award to enhance the exposure and the circulation of European films in Latin America, while at the same time recognising the invaluable role of film critics and journalists in promoting arthouse cinema. The previous winner was The Teachersʼ Lounge by İlker Çatak (Germany).  

The Latin American Critics’ Awards, in cooperation with the Guadalajara Film Festival, is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the national film promotion institutes. Media partners are LatAm cinema and Cineuropa.

About the Guadalajara Film Festival

The reinvention of Mexican cinema started at the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), and since then, the festival has become a fundamental meeting point for the Mexican and Ibero-American film community. The FICG is the most solid film event in Latin America because of its programme and the assembly of industry professionals. It has contributed substantially to the formation of audiences of cinema.