Eat Sleep Die and Call Girl sweep Sweden's Guldbagge awards

Both first features, Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die and Marcimain’s Call Girl collected four statuettes each – but Pichler won the main categories, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay, from five nominations, while Marcimain was considered in 11 categories.

Starring Nermina Lukac, Milan Dragišic, Peter Fält, Ružica Pichlerand and Jonathan Lampinen, Eat Sleep Die portrays a 20-year-old jobless girl in a small village, who wants her life to be more than just “eat sleep die”, while trying to meet state demands that unemployed should look for work in the whole country.

The China Åhlander and Linda Sternö production for Anagram was released domestically by Triart to unanimous critical acclaim. Honoured with the Audience Award during Critics’ Week at the Venice International Film Festival, the film was selected for a special performance at the Swedish Parliament.

“I made this film to give a broad picture of Sweden anno 2012: this is what it looks like right now. It makes me incredible happy that the voices of the film characters will echo in Parliament and show that unemployment ismore than just numbers and statistics,” said Pichler. Eat Sleep Die most recently received the Swedish critics’ Greta prize.

This year’s Life Achievement Award went to 81-year-old Swedish director, writer and actor Hans Alfredson, credited for such films as The Softening of the Egg (1975) and The Simple-Minded Murderer (1982), which won the Silver Bear and Best Actor Award (Stellan Skarsgaard) in Berlin.

Prior to the awards ceremony yesterday, the Göteborg International Film Festival had announced that it had given its own “Guldbagge for Best Film” – the $7,700 (SEK 50,000) big festival prize - to Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar-nominated documentary Searching for Suger Man.

The decision was made by local audiences after screenings of three Guldbagge favourites, also including Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl and Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die. Bendjelloul will receive his award at the festival opening on Friday (Jan 25).

Best Picture
Eat Sleep Die / Äta sova dö
Producer: China Åhlander

Best Director
Gabriela Pichler
for Eat Sleep Die

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nermina Lukač
for her role as Raša in Eat Sleep Die

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Johannes Brost
for his role as Janne in Avalon

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Ulla Skoog
for her role as Puste Segerstedt in The Last Sentence / Dom över död man

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Peter Carlberg
for his role as Klas in Avalon

Best Screenplay
Gabriela Pichler
for her script for Eat Sleep Die

Best Cinematography
Hoyte van Hoytema
for his cinematography in Call Girl

Best Editing
Andreas Jonsson, Hanna Lejonqvist and Niels Pagh Andersen
for editing Palme

Best Costume
Cilla Rörby
for the costumes in Call Girl 

Best Sound
Petter Fladeby and Per Nyström
for the sound in Call Girl

Best Make up
Jenny Fred
for the make up in Easy Money II / Snabba Cash II 

Best Music
Benny Andersson
for the music in Palme

Best Set design
Lina Nordqvist
for the set design in Call Girl

Best Visual effects
Andreas Hylander
for the visual effects in The Ice Dragon / Isdraken

Best Short Film
Dance Music Now
Director: Johan Jonason

Best Documentary Film
Searching for Sugar Man
Director: Malik Bendjelloul

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour
Director: Michael Haneke

Lifetime Achievement Award
Director, screenwriter, actor Hans Alfredson
(Chosen by the Board of the Swedish Film Institute)

The Gullspira Award 2012 (for extraordinary contributions in films for children)
Director Ella Lemhagen
(Chosen by a jury comprised of Catti Edfeldt, Lars Blomgren, Pia Huss, Julia Jarl and the Guldbaggejury chairman Jannike Åhlund) 

The Audience Award
Tosh in Greece / Sune i Grekland - all inclusive
Director: Hannes Holm