Denmark won big with the two Dragon awards handed out in Goteborg on February 5, with Tea Lindeburg’s As In Heaven winning the prize for best Nordic film. With a prize of $44,000 (SEK 400,000), it is one of the world’s most lucrative film awards.
The film, which previously won best director and best actress at San Sebastian, is about a girl in the 19thcentury who hopes to leave her family’s farm to be the first in her family to study. Her future prospects change dramatically through the course of one pivotal day. The jury said: “This powerful and engaging film takes us into a brutal landscape filled with blood, dirt and life-changing decisions.”
The Dragon Award for best documentary went to A House Made Of Splinters, by Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont, about a children’s home in Eastern Ukraine. That film also won Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Best Director award.
Goteborg’s audience award for best Nordic film went to Eskil Vogt’s The Innocents from Norway.
The Ingmar Bergman international debut award went to Vera Dreams of the Sea by Kaltrina Krasniqi, while the Dragon Award for best international feature was Playground by Laura Wandel.
Other awards presented in Goteborg are the gender-neutral acting prize, which went to Seidi Haarla for Compartment No. 6; the Fipresci award also to Compartment No. 6 directed by Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen; the Sven Nykvist cinematography award to Sturla Brandth Grøvlen for The Innocents.
During Goteborg’s TV Drama Vision conference, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond prize went to Iceland’s Gísli Örn Gardarsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson and Mikael Torfason for Blackport.
Highlights of films in production and development
Goteborg’s industry activities were presented in a fully hybrid edition. The Nordic Film Market had about 275 attendees in person, with another 270 watching online-only.
Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision head Cia Edstrom told Screen that she had “very good energy and feedback from the industry, an enthusiastic crowd, eager to see films, works in progress, films in development, but also to meet in real life.”
Some of the highlights from film works in progress presentations included Katrine Brocks’ The Great Silence from Denmark starring Ninjababy’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and Wildland’s Elliott Crosset Hove; crime drama Hit Big directed by Finland’s JP Valkeapää (Dogs Don’t Wear Pants), which Charades has now boarded for sales; epic historical drama War Sailor directed by Norway’s Gunnar Vikene and sold by Beta; family animation Titina from Norway, inspired by the true story of a dog who went on an expedition to the North Pole (sold by Les Films du Losange); gritty Swedish drama Dogborn directed by Isabella Carbonell; Johanna Bernhadsson’s The Andersson Brothers, a documentary portrait of her uncle, filmmaker Roy Andersson, and his two estranged brothers; The Wife director Bjorn Runge’s new love story Burn All My Letters, which spans several generations (sold by REinvent); and Norwegian series director Erika Calmeyer’s debut feature Storm, also sold by REinvent.
Only for those attending the festival in person, Goteborg local hero Ruben Ostlund offered a sneak preview of the first footage from his next feature Triangle Of Sadness, expected to premiere at Cannes in May.
Amongst the pitches in the Discovery section, for films in development from rising talents, were John Skoog’s new black and white feature, Värn, his follow-up award-winning debut feature Ridge, which will star Denis Levant in the story inspired by a farmhand who fortified his house for decades against the threat of war. As with Ridge, Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform produces.
Lauri-Matti Parppei from Finland is in development on The Beast Friend, a modern-day fable about a 30something woman working in a big mansion who visits a gigantic bear hidden in one of the rooms.
Also in development is Swedish thriller Screen Time, about a social media worker who descends into the violent universe of her estranged ex. Writer/director Jonatan Etzler has worked on HBO Nordic’s Beartown and won a student Oscar.
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