The award was inspired by a model in Québec, the Prix collégial du cinéma québécois (PCCQ) and was launched by Filmfest Hamburg and the European Film Academy (EFA) in 2016 as the European University Film Award (EUFA).

The creation of this initiative was to "involve a younger audience, to spread the "European idea" and to transport the spirit of European cinema to an audience of university students.

For the first edition of the award 13 universities from 13 different European countries participated, the number has increased throughout the years with 20 participants in 2017, 22 in 2018 and 24 in 2019.

For the 33rd European Film Awards, the participants were from 25 universities from 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

The 2023 edition included participants from 24 universities,[1] and the 2024 edition saw that number drop to 23 in the absence of Israel's Tel Aviv University.