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AWARDS Nordic countries

Joachim Trier wins the Nordic Council Film Prize on the third attempt

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- The Norwegian director’s English-language Louder than Bombs, starring Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne, has finally snagged Scandinavia’s biggest film award

Joachim Trier wins the Nordic Council Film Prize on the third attempt
Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt and Thomas Robsahm with their Nordic Council Film Prize (© Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org)

Third time lucky: Norwegian director Joachim Trier, who has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize – in 2006 for Reprise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
interview: Karin Julsrud
film profile
]
, and in 2011 for Oslo, August 31st [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile
]
 – has finally received the €47,000 award for Louder than Bombs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile
]
, which last year was Norway’s first contender for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 36 years. Trier, who will share the prize with co-writer Eskil Vogt and producer Thomas Robsahm, was given the prestigious accolade by Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik during the Nordic Council’s session in Copenhagen.

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Starring Isabelle Huppert, Gabriel ByrneJesse Eisenberg and Devin DruidLouder than Bombs is a family drama focusing on a famous war photographer, Isabelle Reed (Huppert). Three years after her death, apparently in a car crash, her husband (Byrne) reunites with their two sons, before opening an exhibition of her work. The three of them struggle to reconcile their feelings for the wife and mother they remember so differently.

“Trier and his team embark on an artistic enterprise that takes storytelling to a new level. Its complexity of structure, its emotional probing and its ability to tear clichés apart should make it part of the curriculum in film schools around the world,” explained the jury, comprising Per Juul Carlsen (Denmark), Jaana Puskala (Finland), Hilmar Oddsson (Iceland), Silje Riise Næss (Norway) and Jannike Åhlund (Sweden).

“I am particularly grateful to receive this Nordic prize in spite of the fact that the film’s dialogue is in English. For me, it is the images, or the language of film, which constitute the most personal element of my work, and film language knows no national bounds,” said Trier, the grandson of legendary Norwegian director Erik Løchen and a cousin of Danish director Lars von Trier.

Louder than Bombs previously received the Jury Prize at Latvia’s Riga International Film Festival, the Bronze Horse at Sweden’s Stockholm International Film Festival and three Cannon Awards (including Best Director) at Norway’s Kosmorama-Trondheim International Film Festival. France’s Memento Films International has so far licensed the Motlys production to 92 countries.

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