02/02/2015 - Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut won eight prizes, including Best Feature, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, when the Danish Film Academy celebrated Danish cinema last night

Lars von Trier (centre) poses with some of his Robert Awards (© Danish Film Academy)

“Peter Aalbæk Jensen (his partner at Zentropa Entertainments) once told me that some of the Robert Awards are won by five votes, so I would like to thank those five persons here in the auditorium. Thank you very much,” said Danish director Lars von Trier in his first public speech in Denmark in almost four years, when he attended the Danish Film Academy’s 31^st Robert gala last night at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Hotel and Congress Centre. It was also his first appearance ever at a national film awards presentation.

But he had every reason to be there: von Trier’s own edit of the Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgård starrer Nymphomaniac [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louise Vesth
film profile] collected eight Roberts, including Best Feature, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, from its total of 16 nominations. It left the other top nominees with two prizes for Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Absent One [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (13 nominations), two for Søren Balle’s The Sunfish (five nominations), one for Bille August’s Silent Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (12 nominations) and none for Niels Arden Oplev’s Speed Walking [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (13 nominations).

The surprise winner (of two Roberts, a prize named after Danish sculptor Robert Jacobsen, who created it) was The Sunfish, Balle and Lærke Sanderhoff’s adaptation of her 2009 play about a 45-year-old, third-generation fisherman in provincial Hirtshals, who falls in love with a marine biologist from the capital.

The Academy’s 1,700 members named the first season of Danish pubcaster DR’s The Legacy, by Swedish actress-director Pernilla August, Best Long TV Series, also bestowing all four TV acting prizes upon it.

Full list of Danish Robert winners 2015

Best Feature Film: Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut, prod: Louise Vesth, for Zentropa Entertainments, dir: Lars von Trier

Best Film Children and Youth Audiences: Antboy: Revenge of The Red Fury, prod: Eva Jakobsen, for Nimbus Film, dir: Ask Hasselbalch

Best Director: Lars von Trier, for Nymphomaniac: Director’s Cut 

Best Original Screenplay: Lars von Trier, Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut

Best Adapted Screenplay: Lærke Sanderhoff and Søren Balle, for The Sunfish

Best Actor: Henrik Birch, for The Sunfish 

Best Actress: Bodil Jørgensen, for All Inclusive [+see also:
trailer
film profile], dir: Hella Joof

Best Supporting Actor: Fares Fares, for The Absent One, dir: Mikkel Nørgaard

Best Supporting Actress: Danica Curcic, for Silent Heart, dir: Bille August 

Best Set Design: Sabine Hviid, for When Animals Dream [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Alexander Arnby
film profile], dir: Jonas Alexander Arnby 

Best Cinematographer: Manuel Alberto Claro, for Nymphomaniac:  Director's Cut

Best Costume Design: Manon Rasmussen, for Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut

Best Make-up: Louise Hauberg Lohmann, Thomas Foldberg and Morten Jacobsen, for When Animals Dream

Best Editing: Molly Malene Stensgaard and Morten Højbjerg, for Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut

Best Sound Design: Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen, for Nymphomaniac: Director's Cut 

Best Musical Score: Tina Dickow and Marie Fisker, for Someone You Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile], dir: Pernille Fischer Christensen

Best Visual Effects: Peter Hjorth, for Nymphomaniac: Director’s Cut

Best Short Fiction/Animation: Helium, prods: Kim Magnusson and Tivi Magnusson, for M&M Productions, dir: Anders Walter

Best Long Fiction/Animation: Lulu, prod: Birgitte Skov, for SF Film Production, dir: Caroline Sascha Cogez

Best Short Documentary: Me and Dad – No Expectations of Applause, prods: Mathilde Hvid Lippman and Mille Haynes, for Made in Copenhagen, dir: Kathrine Ravn Kruse 

Best Long Documentary: The Look of Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], prod: Signe Byrge Sørensen, for Final Cut for Real, dir: Joshua Oppenheimer 

Best Long TV Series: The Legacy 1, prods: Karoline Leth and Christian Rank, for DR Fiktion, scr: Maya Ilsøe, dir: Pernilla August 

Best Short TV Series: Time Travel, prod: Bo Mortensen, for DR, scr: Poul Berg, dir: Kaspar Munk

Best Actor (TV Series): Carsten Bjørnlund, for The Legacy 1

Best Actress (TV Series): Trine Dyrholm, for The Legacy 1

Best Supporting Actor (TV Series): Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, for The Legacy 1

Best Supporting Actress (TV Series): Lene Maria Christensen, for The Legacy 1

Best US Feature: Boyhood, dir: Richard Linklater, local distr: UIP

Best Non-US Feature: Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] (Sweden), dir: Ruben Östlund, local distr: Øst for Paradis 

Honorary Robert: publicist Christel Hammer

The IB Prize: producer Sigrid Dyekjær

Blockbuster Audience Award: The Absent One, prods: Louise Vesth, Jonas Bagger and Peter Aalbæk Jensen, for Zentropa Entertainments, dir: Mikkel Nørgaard