24/06/2010

The 26th Amanda Awards, for the best domestic films released in Norwegian cinemas during the film year 2009-2010, will see 21 films competing in 17 categories. This year’s favourites, with eight nominations each, are Sara Johnsen’s Upperdog [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Gunnar Vikene’s Vegas [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Upperdog (produced by Friland Film) and Vegas (Cinenord) are both nominated in the main categories of Best Director, Screenplay (Johnsen for Upperdog and Vikene and Torun Lian for Vegas), Actress (Poland’s Agnieszka Grochowska and rising local star Karoline Stemre, respectively), and Actor (Hermann Sabado and Jørgen Hausberg Nilsen, respectively).

Hans Petter Moland’s A Somewhat Gentle Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans Petter Moland
film profile] is running for Best Film, Actor (Stellan Skarsgård), Supporting Actress (Jorunn Kjellsby) and Editing (Jens Christian Fodstad), but did not make it into the Best Director and Screenplay categories.

Arild Østin Ommundsen’s thriller Rat Nights also has four nominations, including Best Director, while Margreth Olin’s debut feature The Angel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has three, including Best Screenplay (Olin) and Actress (Maria Bonnevie).

For the first time, kids movies have their own category. Three titles will compete for Best Children’s Film: the 2009 box office hits Twigson [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Åsleik Engmark and Magic Silver [+see also:
trailer
interview: Roar Uthaug
film profile] by Katarina Launing and Roar Uthaug, as well as Christian Lo’s Best Friends. The three films are also competing against each other in the new Special Effects category.

Five films have a chance to win the Best Foreign Film Amanda: US films The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Precious, as well as France’s A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile] and Austria’s The White Ribbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile].

The 23rd Amanda Awards ceremony will take place on August 20, 2010 in Haugesund before the opening of the Norwegian International Film Festival (August 21-26).