Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise is one of 29 films eligible for nominations ahead of the 2024 European Film Awards. This year, the awards will be handed out on 7 December in Swiss city Lucerne.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in a notice shared by the European body, which stated that the chosen 29 make up an initial list. “The Feature Film Selection includes films that the Board of the Academy recommends to all Academy members for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2024,” says the notice. Other titles will be revealed in September.
First presented in 1988, the European Film Awards are intended to honour the greatest achievements in European cinema across 24 categories. The European Film Academy and European Film Academy Productions present the awards, which must satisfy certain criteria to be eligible. For feature films, the criteria include a project having a European director, with a caveat.
“Should a film director not be European, provided they have a European refugee or similar status or have lived in Europe and worked in the European film industry for at least five consecutive years, exceptions by the Board can be made.”
Born in Somalia and resident in Austria since 2009, Harawe has had a short film screened at the Berlinale in 2022. Earlier this year, he made history when The Village Next to Paradise became the first Somalia picture to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
