07/11/2011

Norwegian director Marius Holst’s King of Devil's Island [+see also:
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film profile] was a double winner at the 53rd Nordic Film Days in Lübeck (northern Germany), scooping both the €12,500 NDR first prize and the €5,000 LN Audience Award.

At the awards ceremony on November 5 at Theater Lübeck, Bastøy and Benjamin Helstedt, co-starring with Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, received the honours from the jury which said that their film was “a gripping cinematic experience with a powerful narrative”. Produced by Karin Julsrud for 4½ Fiksjon, King of Devil’s Island depicts a 1915 rebellion on a prison island in the Oslofjord.

For “its consequent minimalism”, Icelandic director Hafsteinn G. Sigurdsson’s Either Way [+see also:
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interview: Hafstein Gunnar Sigurdsson
interview: Hilmar Gudjônsson - Shootin…
film profile]was awarded The Baltic Film Prize. Produced by Davíd Óskar Ólafsson, Árni Filippusson, Hreinn Beck, Tobias Munthe, TheoYoungstein and for Mystery Island and Flickbook Pictures, the drama-comedy follows two road-menders who spend the summer painting lines on winding roads.

The Interfilm Church Prize landed with Finnish director Ville Jankeri’s Sixpack [+see also:
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film profile], (a “laconic comedy”, according to the jury) from Lasse Saarinen and Rimbo Salomaa’s Kinotar Oy, about three young men spending a hot summer’s day in Helsinki. Norwegian director Hilde Korsæth’s My Beloved – A Film about Love and Courage, produced by John Arvid Berger for JAP Film, was presented with the award for Best Documentary.

Concluding the prize list of this year’s showcase, the Children and Youth Film Prize went to Swedish director Anders Grönros’s I Miss You [+see also:
trailer
film profile], while the Children’s Jury gave its diploma to Norwegian director Anders Øvergaard’s Coming Home. German director Lena Liberta’s Like a Stranger took the Cinegate Prize for Best Short in the Filmforum, the section for regional northern German productions.

The largest showcase of Scandinavian films outside the Nordic countries, programmed by Artistic Director Linde Fröhlich, the Nordic Film Days wrapped yesterday (November 6). “Winning three prizes in Lübeck is important, since Germany is one of our main foreign markets,” said Festival Manager Stine Oppegaard, of the Norwegian Film Institute. “Next year, 12 Norwegian films will be theatrically released here.”