Danish filmmaker May el-Toukhy’s Sundance award-winner Queen Of Hearts has been chosen as Denmark’s entry to the best international film prize at the 2020 Academy Awards.
The film was selected by the Danish Academy Award Committee.
It launched at Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the ‘world cinema – dramatic’ audience award.
Subsequent prizes have included three awards at Göteborg Film Festival, including the event’s $110,000 (£88,135) Dragon award for best Nordic film, one of the most lucrative film cash prizes in the industry.
Queen Of Hearts stars Danish actress Trine Dyrholm as a woman who risks her career and family when she seduces her teenage stepson, played by Swedish actor Gustav Lindh.
TrustNordisk is handling sales on the drama. It has previously sealed international deals including for the UK (Thunderbird) and US (Breaking Glass Pictures); it will be released in the latter this year.
Denmark is one of the most successful countries in the foreign-language category, with 12 nominations and three wins from 56 previous entries.
The top prizes came for Susanne Bier’s In A Better World in 2011; Bille August’s Pelle The Conqueror in 1989; and Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast in 1988.
Including Bier’s win, the country has six nominations in the last 13 ceremonies. Gustav Möller’s The Guilty was widely-tipped for a nomination last year, but ultimately only made it as far as the December shortlist.
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