The 1st Annual European Film Awards, presented by the European Film Academy, recognized excellence in European cinema. The ceremony took place on 26 November 1988 at the Theater des Westens in West Berlin and was hosted by Luxembourgish presenter Desirée Nosbusch and German actor Jan Niklas.
British film Distant Voices, Still Lives led the nominations with five but the films Wings of Desire, Pelle the Conqueror and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown got the most wins with two each. Krzysztof Kieà Âlowski's A Short Film About Killing received the award for Best European Film.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Swedish director Ingmar Bergman presented by German actress Nastasja Kinski and to Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni presented by Italian actress Giulietta Masina. English filmmaker Richard Attenborough received the Award of Merit, which was presented by Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida while two Special Awards were presented, one to Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor and one to Russian composer Yuri Khanon for the music of The Days of Eclipse.
The winners are in a yellow background and in bold.