Trier's Oslo, August 31st competing for Nordic Council Film Prize

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

24/08/2011 - Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st [trailer, film focus], which will close the 39th Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund tomorrow (August 25), is among the five contenders for Scandinavia’s largest film award - the Nordic Council Film Prize, which comes with a DKK350,000 ($67,000) cheque to be shared by the film’s director, writer and producer.

Scripted by Trier, with Eskil Vogt, the double portrait of a man in existential crises and of contemporary Oslo is produced by Yngve Sæther and Sigve Endresen, for Motlys AS. Launched in this year’s Un Certain Regard at Cannes – and shortlisted for Norway’s Oscar submission – it will screen in the Vanguard section at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Trier’s second feature will be competing with Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s The Truth About Men [trailer]; Finnish director Zaida Bergroth’s The Good Son (Hyvä poika); Icelandic director Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson’s Undercurrent; and Swedish director Pernilla August’s Beyond [trailer], it was announced yesterday at a press conference in Haugesund.

The juries' chairmen behind the candidates will also pick the winner which ”is best embedded to a significant degree in Nordic culture, has the highest artistic quality, stands out in terms of artistic originality and combines and refines the many elements of film in a convincing and integrated manner”. The prize will be awarded at Nordic Council’s session on Nov 2 in Copenhagen.

Administrated by Oslo-based Nordic Film & TV Fond Managing Director Hanne Palmquist, the laurels were first awarded in 2002 to celebrate the Nordic Council's 50th anniversary. The first recipient was Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s The Man Without a Past [trailer] – and he cashed in both as director, writer and producer.

Since 2005 it has been handed out annually, to Danish director Per Fly’s Drabet (Manslaughter) [trailer], Swedish director Josef Fares’ Zozo [trailer], Danish director Peter Schønau Fog’s The Art of Crying (Kunsten at græde i kor), Swedish director Roy Andersson’s You, the Living (Du levande), Danish director Lars von Trier's Antichrist [trailer, film focus] and fellow Dane Thomas Vinterberg’s Submarino [trailer, film focus].