Norway's Company Orheim scoops Göteborg’s wealthy Dragon

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

06/02/2012 - Prior to its local premiere on March 2, Norwegian director Arild Andresen’s second feature, Company Orheim [trailer], received the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Feature at the Göteborg International Film Festival – a statuette and one million Swedish crowns (€113,000). Last year Andresen’s The Liverpool Goalie [trailer] collected 11 international prizes.

At Saturday’s (February 4) awards ceremony, the jury presided over by Austrian director Jessica Hausner said that it was deeply touched by the story of ”a family that suffers – and is finally destroyed by – the brutality of its father. Produced by Yngve Sæther and Sigve Endresen for Motlys, Company Orheim is the third screen adaption of Norwegian author Tore Renberg’s novels; it will be launched at the European Film Market during the upcoming Berlinale (February 9-19).

Italian director Alice Rohrwacher was awarded the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award for her Corpo Celeste [trailer, film focus], about a 13-year-old girl who has just moved back to southern Italy and tries to find her future. This year’s Un Certain Regard winner in Cannes, German director Andreas Dresen’s Stopped On Track [trailer], took the Audience Award for Best Feature.

A Norwegian film, Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st [trailer, film focus], earned the international critics’ FIPRESCI Prize, while Jordanian director Ahmad Saleh’s short, House, garned him a Dragon for Best Talent. Swedish films on the winners’ list include Josefine Tengblad’s Kiss Me (Lorens Award), Sara Broos’ For You Naked (Dragon for Best Documentary), Ester Martin Bergsmark’s She Male Snails (Kodak Nordic Vision Award), and Patrik Eklund’s Flicker (Church of Sweden Award).