‘Mother, Couch’ wins main award at Goteborg Film Festival

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Mother, Couch

Source: Toronto International Film Festival

‘Mother, Couch’

Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch took the Dragon award for best Nordic film at Goteborg Film Festival, which held its closing ceremony this evening (Saturday, February 3).

The Swedish-US drama received the 400,000 SEK (£29,939) prize from the five-person jury, consisting of actors Lena Endre and William Spetz, and directors Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Tonia Noyabrova and Anna Novion.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The jury chose the film for its “original and bold storytelling with a lot of humour; with the use of creative cinematography and sharp and witty dialogue.”

Mother, Couch centres on three children who are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store. It stars Ewan McGregor, who was recipient of an honorary Dragon award at this year’s Goteborg; alongside Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell and Ellen Burstyn.

It debuted as a Special Presentation at Toronto Film Festival last September.

Finnish actress Airola received the best acting prize for her role in Miia Tervo’s The Missile, about a single mother working at a newspaper who is drawn into the investigation about a missile crash. The jury praised Airola for her “raw vulnerability and a magnetic force of power.”

Juan Sarmiento G. received the Sven Nykvist cinematography award for his work on Daniel Espinosa’s Madame Luna; while Nikolaj Arcel’s Oscar-shortlisted Danish title The Promised Land took two prizes – the audience award and the Fipresci prize.

Me, Maryam, The Children And 26 Others from Irranian filmmaker Farshad Hashemi received the Ingmar Bergman International Debut award – the prize for which consists of a stay at The Bergman Estate on Faro island.

Goteborg wraps its 47^th edition tomorrow (Sunday, February 4), having hosted talks from Ruben Ostlund and Thierry Fremaux, plus McGregor and Sidse Babett Knudsen.