The Luxembourg Film Academy has decided on the nominee for the 2026 Academy Award for Best International Film.
Breathing Underwater (Hors d’haleine), the debut feature film by director Eric Lamhène and produced by Samsa Film, was unanimously chosen. This is not only an endorsement of a new talent, but also an acknowledgement of the courage of a work that tackles painful but important themes.
The plot revolves around Emma (played by Carla Juri), who recovers in the hospital after a beating and unexpectedly learns that she is pregnant. Instead of returning to her husband, she chooses a shelter for women and children, where she gradually regains her lost self through new relationships and the support of other heroines. The film combines French, Luxembourgish, Spanish and Italian, emphasising the multicultural context.
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The other main winner of the evening was Loïc Tanson’s The Last Ashes [+], which won the Best Actress and Best Actor Awards for Sophie Mousel and Timo Wagner, respectively, as well as the Special Press Prize (awarded by the Luxembourg Film Press Association – ALPC). The movie, also a debut fiction film, takes us back in time to 1854 to tell a wholly female story of revenge about a girl who decides to defy an unfair and violent tradition which forces women into silence and, ultimately, submission. The Last Ashes is also a Luxembourgish-Belgian co-production staged by Samsa Film.
Luxembourg’s Breathing Underwater, by Eric Lamhène
A story of resilience, healing & the quiet strength in human connections.
Playing at EUFF. Schedule soon#EUFF30 #WindowToEurope #DelhiEvents #FilmFestival pic.twitter.com/rbn5WEP3qX— European Union Film Festival (@euffindia) October 9, 2025
The other winning films include Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner All We Imagine as Light [+], which received the Best Feature-length Fiction or Documentary Co-production Award (the film was co-produced in Luxembourg by Les Films Fauves), and the animated titles Stitch Head [+], directed by Germany’s Steve Hudson and Toby Genkel, and Fox and Hare Save the Forest [+], directed by the Netherlands’ Mascha Halberstad, both Luxembourgish minority co-productions.
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