22/10/2013 - Erik Poppe’s A Thousand Times Good Night received the Founder’s Award, while Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Pioneer received the Silver Hugo for Best Cinematography

“Lots of people in the cinemas, and now a prestigious prize is on the way across the Atlantic - I pinch my arm and think that someone must soon wake me,” said Norwegian director Erik Poppe, after his new film A Thousand Times Good Night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Erik Poppe
film profile] had taken 11,727 admissions during the opening weekend.

Launched by local distributor Euforia Film, his drama from Harald Rosenløw Eeg’s script was last week (October 16) celebrated at a gala in Oslo’s Colosseum Theatre, attended by French Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche and Irish actor (and U2 founder-drummer) Larry Mullen Jr (photo), both playing lead roles in the film.

At the same time it was presented at the 49^th Chicago International Film Festival, where it received the Founder’s (Michael Kutza) Award, which is given to one film across all categories that captures the spirit of the festival for its unique and innovative approach to the art of the moving image.

“A Thousand Times Good Night features Binoche’s most stirring and memorable performance to date,” said the jury. Binoche won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for UK director Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient (1996), and her portrayal as a famous woman war photographer is her first part in a Norwegian film.

Also starring Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Norwegian actor Mads Ousdal, Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy, and produced by Finn Gjerdrum and Stein B Kvae for Paradox, Poppe’s fourth feature has previously crossed the Atlantic for the 37^th Montreal World Film Festival to win the Special Grand Prix of the Jury.

In Chicago, which ends on October 24, Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjærg’s thriller, Pioneer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], was awarded a Silver Hugo for Best Cinematography (by Jallo Faber, who “gave us a thrilling, sweeping cinematic scope,” per the jury). The Christian Fredrik Martin production for Friland Film, which Magnolia Pictures will release in the US, has sold 165,594 tickets domestically.