Icelandic newcomer Dagur Kari's Noi The Albino dominated the awards at the Göteborg film festival in Sweden.

The closing ceremony for Sweden's 26th film festival in Göteborg was Icelandic newcomer Dagur Kari's night, when his feature debut Noi The Albino (Noi Albinoi) took top honours including the Nordic Film Award, the FIPRESCI award and the Church of Sweden Film Award.

"You get a bad conscience when you receive an award from the church, I promise to attend more in the future," he said. The film had been a hot ticket all week in both Rotterdam and Göteborg and was a popular winner with both the international guests and the local audience.

The festival's main prize, the Nordic Film Award, is backed by Nordic Film & TV Fund, regional fund Film I Vast and the Göteborg festival and consists of $23,260 (SEK200,000). Half the money is earmarked for the marketing of the film in Cannes. The Church award was accompanied by $3,500 (SEK30,000).

Sweden's Lukas Moodysson was awarded best film by the Swedish Critics Association and received the City Of Göteborg Film Award for Lilya 4-Ever. The $5,800 (SEK50,000) which came with the latter prize, the filmmaker promptly donated to a Bosnian organisation, Lara, working against human slavery and prostitution.

Another Icelandic film, veteran Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Falcons, was awarded the Kodak Nordic Vision Award $5,800 for cinematographer Harald Paalgard. Norwegian filmmaker Gunnar Vikene and co-writer Torun Lian also picked up the CANAL+ Nordic Script Award for Falling Sky (Himmelfall).

Within a few days it was apparent that this year's Göteborg festival, the first for director Jannike Ahlund and her staff, was on its way to setting a box-office record. Although it screened less film than previous years, 390 compared to last years 510. After ten days it had registered 112,300 admissions, some 3,000 more than last year.

Topics