During the 36th European Film Awards on 9 December in Berlin, Güler Sabancı, chairperson of Sabancı Holding, will receive the 2023 European Sustainability Award – Prix Film4Climate. This year’s Sustainability Award expands from environmental sustainability, defining the context and relevance of sustainability in a broader sense by including all efforts made to enhance society in general, and the well-being and future of the film industry in particular.

The European Film Academy honours Güler Sabancı’s outstanding and impressive philanthropic work recognized not only in Turkey but in Europe and beyond, including by the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, the Clinton Global Citizen Award, the Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy, and the European School of Management Responsible Leadership Award.

In her first reaction, Güler Sabancı highlights that “for a more sustainable world, we should all make more effort together and act consciously and responsively. Cinema is a power that can touch people’s hearts and change the world. This award reinforces our commitment to bring sustainability to a wider audience through cinema.”

Mike Downey, chair of the board, says “With the European Sustainability Award – Prix Film4Climate, the European Film Academy is continuing its dedication to a more sustainable film industry in Europe. By widening the scope of sustainability beyond environmental sustainability, we strongly feel that entrepreneurs and philantropists such as Güler Sabancı, who inspires and encourages so many of us to keep on working on a sector that takes its responsibility, can be celebrated and thanked for their efforts.”

The European Sustainability Award – Prix Film4Climate aims to award a European institution, company, or film for an Outstanding European contribution to sustainability in film. The initiative is a partnership between the European Film Academy and the World Bank Group’s programme for creative communications and climate action, Connect4Climate.