Romanian director Alina Șerban’s debut film nominated for European Young Audience Award 2027

I Matter (Eu contez), the feature film debut of Romanian director Alina Șerban, has been nominated for the European Young Audience Award.

It is nominated alongside Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold Onto Me (a Cyprus, Greece, Denmark production) and Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy (France, Belgium)

Șerban’s film premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where it won the Public’s Choice Award. It has also been shortlisted for the European Film Awards, alongside productions by three other Romanian directors.

Spoken in Romanian and Romani, the film tells the story of Rebeca, a young Roma woman who is about to leave the foster care center where she grew up.

It is a co-production between Romania (microFILM), Germany (2Pilots Filmproduction), and Belgium (Frakas Productions, Lemming Film).

The European Young Audience Award celebrates outstanding European films for young people aged 12 and over.

The young audiences take part in every step: reviewing the submitted films, selecting the three nominees, and choosing the winner. During the European Award Season, running from November to January, local partners across Europe host jury screenings where young audiences watch and rate the nominated films.

The winner will be announced at the 39th European Film Awards ceremony in Athens on January 16, 2027.

The nominated films reach young audiences through the European Young Audience Award’s partner network of cinemas, film festivals, film academies and film institutes across the continent.