Liv Ullmann will be honored with the Career Award at the upcoming European Film Awards, which honors her body of work as an actress, director and screenwriter.
Ullmann has been an international star since Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 arthouse hit Persona. In fact, she is best known for her collaboration with Bergman, appearing in ten of his films and directing two of his screenplays. Bergman was also the father of his daughter, writer Lynne Ullman.
Ullmann is also known for his Oscar-nominated work with Swedish director Jan Troell in The New World (1972) and The Immigrant, and for co-starring Italian director Mauro Bolognini in Farewell to Moscow, for which he won the David di Donatello Award.
Ullmann’s first film as a director was Sophie (1992), a film about the lives of Jewish women living in Copenhagen from 1886 to 1907, starring Karen-Lise Minster, Erland Josefsson, and Gita Norbi. This drama was followed by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Ansett’s great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter (1995), set in 14th century Norway, and The Private Confessions (1996), written by Bergman and starring Pernilla August and Max von Sydow. Her film Faithless (2000), starring Lena Endre and Erland Josephson, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and her most recent directorial effort is Miss Julie, starring Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain.
“Liv Ullmann helped shape our understanding of European cinema,” the European Film Academy said in a statement.
The 38th European Film Awards will be held in Athens on January 17, 2026.