20/01/2015 - Ruben Östlund has been honoured in Hollywood and Stockholm, while technician Magnus Wrenninge is to receive a technical Oscar

Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], which missed out on the Oscar nominations for Best Foreign-language Film, received the Critics’ Choice Award from the American Broadcast Film Critics Association at the 20^th awards gala held in the Hollywood Palladium last week (15 January). 

Only the second Swedish movie to be named Best Foreign-language Feature by the critics (following Niels Arden Oplev’s Millennium 1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Niels Arden Oplev
interview: Søren Stærmose
film profile] in 2011), Force Majeure was competing with Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile], Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
film profile], Argentinian director Damián Szifron’s Wild Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Also last week (12 January), the Swedish Film Critics Association gave its Greta Award to Östlund’s family drama – his third, after Involuntary [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Hemmendorff
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] (2008) and Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile] (2011). “With a new film directed by him, we are used to expecting meticulous discomfort, enjoyable challenges and the need for a thorough discussion,” they said, adding that Force Majeure “undoubtedly has all these peculiarities”.

Produced by Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson and Philippe Bober for Sweden’s Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s fourth feature was launched in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, going on to win the Jury Prize. It has been nominated for 12 Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s national film prize, the winners of which will be announced on 26 January. 

While no Academy Awards are awaiting Swedish films, Swedish film technician Magnus Wrenninge will receive an Oscar for leading the design and development of the Field3D programme at the Academy’s special gala for scientific and technical achievements on 7 February – two weeks before the “real” event. 

Wrenninge, who moved to California after his 2003 graduation from the Technical High School in Linköping, created the computer-graphics programme for Sony Pictures in 2009. The library storing large amounts of data makes it easier to create effects like fire and smoke in 3D animation.