At the opening gala for the 14th edition of Denmark's NatFilm Festival newcomer Jannik Johansen received the Natsvaermer Award along with $3,600, which is presented annually to a new talent.

The 37 year-old Johansen has written and directed several shorts including A Quiet Death (1997) and Off Track (1999), before assisting first-time directors Anders Thomas Jensen and Hella Joof as assistant director on Flickering Lights (2000) and as technical director on Shake It All About (2001), both major local hits.

Johansen makes his feature directing debut with the crime-comedy Rembrandt, which is co-written with Anders Thomas Jensen (The Green Butchers) and has an all-star cast of Danish talent.

The $2.6m film is inspired by the real theft of a Rembrandt painting from a Danish museum in 1999.

Nordisk Film will release Rembrandt in September, as the maiden release in its first-look collaboration with the new production outfit Fine & Mellow run by producer Thomas Gammeltoft (Shake It All About).

Previous recipients of the Natsvaermer Award include Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Per Fly. It is awarded by the Natsvaermer Foundation, an independent fund established to support young Danish film, which also organises the festival.