“I just hope it’s unique; that would be nice,” director Hans Petter Moland told Cineuropa in regard to his adaptation of Per Petterson’s bestselling and far from easily adaptable novel Out Stealing Horses [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hans Petter Moland
scheda film], a story of life, death, war and loss that spans 60 years, and moves back and forth with notable non-linearity.

With a successful opening in Berlin’s 2019 competition, topped off with a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk, and with sales to 29 territories, healthy domestic box-office figures and a record ten nominations at the national Norwegian Amanda Awards, Moland has certainly done okay. At Saturday’s Amanda ceremony, Out Stealing Horses ended up with five wins, for Best Cinematography (Rasmus Videbæk), Best Original Music (Kaspar Kaae), Best Supporting Actor (Bjørn Floberg), Best Director (Moland) and Best Norwegian Film of 2019. It could therefore be a fairly hot tip for the country’s forthcoming Oscar submission, set to be announced on 3 September.

The movie was also nominated for the Audience Award, also known as the People’s Amanda, but lost out to John Andreas Andersen’s disaster extravaganza The Quake [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], which unsurprisingly also snagged the Award for Best Visual Effects (Lars Erik Hansen). There was also close to zero chance of any actress prize winding up in the Moland camp (by his own admission, his main female character has just three lines). The Award for Best Actress went to Pia Tjelta for her tour-de-force performance as the distraught mother in Blind Spot [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tuva Novotny
scheda film], the directorial debut by renowned actress Tuva Novotny. The Best Supporting Actress gong went to Maria Bonnevie for her turn in Phoenix [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Camilla Strøm Henriksen
scheda film], again for a mother part in a solid debut by a former actress, Camilla Strøm Henriksen (who herself pocketed the Best Actress Amanda for A Handful of Time in 1989). And although Tobias Santelmann has a leading part in Out Stealing Horses, his Best Actor win was for his work in the true-crime drama-thriller Congo [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], directed by Marius Holst (who, incidentally, was originally set to direct Out Stealing Horses).

The other multi-nominated film in the running for the 2019 Norwegian Amandas, Eirik Svensson’s Harajuku [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], garnered two wins, for Best Sound Design (Gunn Tove Gronsberg) and Best Editing (Karsten Meinich and Elise Solberg). Additional awards went to writer-director Martin Lund for Psychobitch [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Best Screenplay and Best Children’s Film), Egil Håskjold Larsen’s Where Man Returns [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Best Documentary), Lina Nordqvist (Best Production Design) for her work on Sonja: The White Swan [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anne Sewitsky
intervista: Ine Marie Wilmann
scheda film] and director Fanny Ovesen for She-Pack (Best Short). The Award for Best Foreign Film went to Capernaum [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Nadine Labaki (Lebanon/France).

Honorary Awards were given to director-producer Petter Vennerød and cinematographer Philip Øgaard (Zero Kelvin, Cold Pursuit [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]). The Amanda Award, named after a colourful local Haugesund street vendor of the early 1900s, was established in 1985 and celebrated its 35^th edition this year.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Norwegian Film on Theatrical Release
Out Stealing Horses [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hans Petter Moland
scheda film] – Hans Petter Moland (Norway/Sweden Denmark)

Best Children’s Film
Psychobitch [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Martin Lund (Norway)

Best Director
Hans Petter Moland – Out Stealing Horses

Best Actress
Pia Tjelta – Blind Spot [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Tuva Novotny
scheda film] (Norway)

Best Actor
Tobias Santelmann – Congo [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (Norway/Sweden/Germany)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria Bonnevie – Phoenix [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Camilla Strøm Henriksen
scheda film] (Norway/Sweden)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Bjørn Floberg – Out Stealing Horses

Best Screenplay
Martin Lund – Psychobitch

Best Cinematography
Rasmus Videbæk – Out Stealing Horses

Best Art Direction/Scenography
Lina Nordqvist – Sonja: The White Swan [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Anne Sewitsky
intervista: Ine Marie Wilmann
scheda film] (Norway/Denmark/Ireland)

Best Visual Effects
Lars Erik Hansen, Torgeir Busch, Espen Nordahl and Magnus Olsson – The Quake [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (Norway)

Best Music
Kasper Kaae – Out Stealing Horses

Best Editing
Karsten Meinich, Elise Solberg – Harajuku [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (Norway)

Best Sound Design
Gunn Tove Grønsberg – Harajuku

Best Short Film
She-Pack – Fanny Ovesen (Norway)

Best Documentary
Where Man Returns [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] – Egil Håskjold Larsen (Norway)

Best Foreign Film on Theatrical Release
Capernaum [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] – Nadine Labaki (Lebanon/France)

The People’s Amanda
The Quake – John Andreas Andersen

The Amanda Committee’s Golden Clapper
Philip Øgaard (cinematographer)

The Amanda Committee Honorary Award
Petter Vennerød (director-producer)