The nominees for the inaugural $46,000 (DKR350,000) Nordic Council's Film Prize, which will be awarded at the council's 50th anniversary on October 29, include ten new films from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

The films range from internationally acclaimed features like Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past, Susanne Bier's Open Hearts, Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-Ever, Unni Straume's Music For Weddings And Funerals and Baltasar Kormakur's The Sea, to newcomers Rostislav Sergejevich Aalto's Finnish Cleaning Up! and Even Benested's Norwegian All About My Father, both of which are feature-length documentaries. Jesper W. Nielsen's Danish Okay and Ágúst Gudmundsson's Icelandic The Seagull's Laughter are also among the nominees.

The council has appointed five local juries from throughout the Nordic region, who have each selected two national candidates among the films released domestically between September 30 2001 and September 30 2002. The jury members will then meet and decide on one winner, who will share the $46,000 equally between the director, the screenwriter and the producer.