Danish director Peter Schonau Fog's feature debut, The Art of Crying (Kunsten at græde i kor), will be awarded the Nordic Council's Film Prize at a ceremony during the council's session in Oslo on Oct 31.

Scandinavia 's largest film award - it comes with $65,000 (Euros 47,000) - will be equally divided between Fog, scriptwriter Bo hr. Hansen and producer Thomas Stenderup. They will be recognised at a press conference later today at the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen.

The Danish submission for the best foreign language Oscar race, The Art of Crying is among the 42 films shortlisted for the European Film Award.

Launched at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, the film won 15 festival awards before its Danish premiere. Most recently it received the FIPRESCI award and the ecumenical prize at the Reykjavik International Film Festival.

Jesper Asholt, Hanne Hedelund and Jannik Lorenzen star in the story of an 11-year-old boy who struggles with a suicidal father and a mother who has given up.

Based on Erling Jepsen's novel, the film was produced by Stenderup for Final Cut Productions. An SF Film-Filmcompagniet release, it reached 228,000 admissions domestically.

Since instigated as an annual award in 2005, the Nordic Council's Film Prize has been given to Danish director Per Fly's Manslaughter (Drabet) and Swedish director Josef Fares' Zozo.

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