Location Awards 2025
The EUFCN Location Awards is the annual contest for European filming locations, organized by EUFCN.
EUFCN member Film Commissions and Film Offices had the opportunity to submit one location from a film or a series shot in their territory and released between September 29, 2024 and October 13, 2025.
The Location Awards Jury selected the shortlist of five locations competing for two distinct Awards:
a) The EUFCN Location Award 2025, selected by the Location Award Jury
b) The EUFCN Audience Location Award 2025, selected by the public through an online vote. Voting closes on January 30, 2026.
The winners of the EUFCN Location Award 2025 and of the EUFCN Audience Location Award 2025 will be revealed during the EFM/Berlinale 2026 in February.
One voter will win a trip to the EUFCN Audience Location Award 2025 winning location!
Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, offers a dense and varied urban fabric where Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, interwar, socialist-modernist, and contemporary styles exist within short distances. The city’s layered history and landmarks provided an authentic European dimension that elevated the production of US-based franchise The Librarians: The Next Chapter, enhancing narrative immersion.
Public squares, historic streets, and cultural institutions gave the series a credible sense of place, balancing time travel fantasy with contemporary realism. The production utilized the Belgrade Fortress to evoke potent scenes of magical and historical gravitas and transformed the exterior of the Military Museum into the central location of the series – the Library, where unleashed magic rippled outward into the modern day world. The show also incorporated Kneza Mihaila Street, the central shopping pedestrian artery, to illustrate the cultural friction when a time-displaced librarian encounters modern life. The Plavi Voz (Marshal Tito’s Blue Train) served as a tangible gateway to the fantastical. Furthermore, the Parliament building, the Observatory and the National Theater were granted filming access for key scenes, embedding national institutions into the series’ mythos. Serbian folklore elements like vampyres and drekavac (shapeshifter) added site based supernatural accuracy.
The series spotlighted Belgrade to a global fan base of the Librarians franchise, introducing millions of viewers to Serbia’s cultural heritage. Economically, the shoot engaged local creatives, from actors to costumes and production designers, integrating local talent into the creative process. It also strengthened collaboration between city authorities, cultural institutions, and production companies, demonstrating the mutual benefits of accessibility and flexibility.
Between the ocean and the mountains, the city of Figueira da Foz stands out as one of Portugal’s most cinematic coastal cities, where heritage, nature and architecture intertwine to create an atmosphere both historical and timeless. Its diversity of locations gave the series Broken Spies an authentic visual identity, evoking the glamour, intrigue and tension of the 1940s.
Figueira da Foz offers rich architectural heritage, unspoiled coastal landscapes and a cinematic light shaped by the Atlantic. Half of Broken Spies was filmed in Figueira da Foz, which serves as a living element in the narrative. Once a luxurious seaside resort for elites, the city became, during World War II, a refuge for exiles and spies, where leisure intertwined with surveillance. For the directors and producers, this duality was key to the series’ tone: the glamorous interiors of the Casino da Figueira and Palácio Sotto Mayor contrast with the isolated landscapes of Serra da Boa Viagem, Cabo Mondego and the salt flats of Lavos, creating a visual language between freedom and control. Every detail – the 1940s costumes, the architecture, the interplay of light – reflects the spirit of an era caught between beauty and danger.
The filming of Broken Spies played a decisive role in shaping Figueira da Foz’s commitment to becoming a film-friendly city. By successfully hosting a large-scale international production, the municipality strengthened its position as a supportive partner for the audiovisual sector and recognised the economic, cultural and touristic value of welcoming future projects.
Inari is the largest municipality in Finland but also one of the least populated. Its center, Ivalo, is also the original title of the series Arctic Circle, produced by Yellow Film & TV. Surrounded by arctic nature, Inari’s raw atmospheric sceneries have been an integral part of the series from the very start, becoming a character of their own and bringing the gripping Nordic crime drama to life.
Set in the breathtaking landscapes of Inari, the location of Arctic Circle (Ivalo) is inseparable from the story itself. The vast, frozen wilderness—where silence, light, and extreme weather coexist—establishes an atmosphere of isolation and fragile beauty that mirrors the series’ psychological intensity. This unique natural world reflects the characters’ inner struggles and the clash between human vulnerability and the unforgiving power of nature. From the pale glow of the polar night to the brilliance of snow under a low winter sun, Inari’s Arctic environment enhances the visual storytelling, deepening both suspense and intimacy.
For the director and producers, filming on location in Inari brought immense depth and credibility to the narrative. Inspired by the project’s positive impact, the municipality has developed Lapland’s first-ever local audiovisual incentive, recognizing the potential of the film industry as a driver for economic and cultural growth. The ever-changing northern light, the architecture of small Arctic villages, and the boundless vistas all amplify the series’ cinematic scale. Inari’s landscape ultimately transforms Arctic Circle into something haunting, elemental, and unforgettable.
The island of La Palma, located in the northwest of the Canary archipelago and designated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, stands out for its rugged terrain, volcanic origins, and remarkable diversity of landscapes. The Netflix miniseries La Palma (2024) organically integrated this diversity of environments into its narrative, a fictional story that incorporated the 2021 volcanic eruption.
The series La Palma depicts a recent disaster in which the island’s geography and volcanic landscapes are far more than a backdrop. Based on the scientific theory of Cumbre Vieja’s potential landslides and the associated megatsunami risk, the production found in La Palma’s rugged terrain a plausible and awe-inspiring setting, further integrating the real-life 2021 Tajogaite eruption to reinforce dramatic authenticity. The Los Tilos Forest, a jewel of Atlantic laurel forest, provided a humid, primeval atmosphere for intimate and contemplative scenes. The Tajogaite Volcano, with its recent lava flows, became a central visual element conveying the magnitude of the natural disaster. The black plains of Los Llanos del Jable offered stark, dramatic, and cinematic arid landscapes. Meanwhile, the historic center of Santa Cruz de La Palma, with its colonial layout and lively public spaces, brought local authenticity to urban scenes.
The international production La Palma exemplified the importance of collaboration among the Film Commission, the Island Council (Cabildo), and local municipalities, streamlining permitting processes and strengthening logistical coordination for large-scale shoots. La Palma has positioned itself as a benchmark in island-level audiovisual management, combining institutional support, local development, and international projection.
5 MDM Film Commission
SANGERHAUSEN — Germany
Feature Film: PHANTOMS OF JULY (Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen)
Ever heard of Sangerhausen in Germany? A small town in the southern Lower Harz Region of Saxony-Anhalt, with a visible mining past and a floral present, rich in history and German Romanticism, as Martin Luther and Novalis worked in this region. Never before had a film been shot here – until Julian Radlmaier put Sangerhausen on the cinematic map with his feature Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen / Phantoms of July.
Julian Radlmaier, fascinated by “a very dense representation of both Germany’s past and present because there are many, many historical layers…”, developed different storylines simply by observing the town and its residents. It was the first time he began a story from a place and a location. The film follows two women brought together by the winding paths of chance on an unexpected ghost hunt in the mountains. The director was also inspired by the 18th-century poet Novalis, who introduced the blue flower as a symbol of romantic longing – Sehnsucht in German: “…this is not just a place where you can imagine that people are longing for something else, but also where longing as a concept was invented.”
Since its premiere as the opening film of Locarno Film Festival 2025, Phantoms of July has been screened far beyond Germany and Europe, bringing cultural awareness of this previously unknown region to the wider world. The film crew received every possible support from the town and its residents during the long shoot, even allowing for a reshoot later that year.
EUFCN Location Awards 2025
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One lucky name will be picked among the voters and will have the chance to visit the EUFCN Audience Location Award 2025 winning location!