The Spanish city will host the 31st edition of the awards given each year by the European Film Academy

Coinciding with the closure of the Seville European Film Festival, the Seville City Council and the European Film Academy (EFA) announced this morning at a press conference that the 2018 European Film Awards will be presented in the Andalusian capital.

The announcement was made by Antonio Muñoz, delegate for Urban Habitat, Culture and Tourism at Seville City Council, Mike Downey, Vice President of EFA, and José Luis Cienfuegos, director of the Seville European Film Festival.

Muñoz, on behalf of the City Council, has said that “we are very happy” that Seville will be hosting the 31st edition of the EFA Awards; “an event that the city has pursued insistently and that finally will be a reality”. The delegate has stated that the election was “closely contested” with other cities “which legitimately” opted for hosting the European Film Awards gala. “Seville loves cinema, it is the setting for international shoots and the city is the birthplace of directors and actors, which is why this decision by the EFA is the culmination of this city’s commitment to cinema”, Muñoz added. “In Seville, the citizens are unstoppable when they decide on something, so the 2018 EFA Awards gala will be one of the best in its history”.

Mike Downey has confessed that he is “delighted” that the 31st edition of the EFA Awards will be held in Seville, “a city that is our soulmate”, according to the Vice President of the European Academy. Downey has stressed the thirteen years “of loyal collaboration and friendship” with “one of the best festivals of European cinema” (that in Seville), and underlined its close work with universities, institutes and schools, and also its commitment to European cinema. The Vice President of the EFA also referred to Seville’s infrastructures, which made it “very competitive” with regard to the other capitals aspiring to host the awards. Seville’s dream began taking shape in the middle of the crisis and finally the awards will be presented here in 2018”, concluded Downey.

The European Film Awards, which are having their 29th edition this year, are the climax of the various annual activities carried out by the European Film Academy;  with a total of 22 categories, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor, they are the greatest recognition of film achievements on the Old Continent. In its recent editions these awards have gone to, among others, actors such as Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Colin Firth, Tilda Swinton, Ewan McGregor, Kate Winslet or Kristin Scott Thomas; and directors such as Paolo Sorrentino,  Michael Haneke, Roman Polanski, Lars von Trier, Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Pedro Almodóvar who is nominated again this year, along with his leading actresses, for Julieta.

In 2018, Seville, a city which more and more directors are choosing as a setting for their productions, will join capitals such as London, Paris, Rome, Rome, Barcelona or Copenhagen, which have already hosted this ceremony. Each even-numbered year the Academy selects a different Eurupean city to host what is its most important event, while, in uneven-numbered years, it is always held in Berlin. Breslavia, 2016 European Capital of Culture, will be the setting for the EFA Awards presentation ceremony this coming December.

The Seville capital has been, since 2004, the setting for the European Film Festival (SEFF), dedicated exclusively to European film industries and to the diffusion of their works and talent. Thanks to the fluid, consolidated relationship between both institutions, since 2005 the European Film Academy announces the annual nomination for the European Film Awards during the festival. For this reason, the decision is the natural consequence of the long collaborative relationship that the city of Seville has with the EFA through SEFF.

The 2018 European Film Awards will be presented in December of that year.