Norwegian Films News

Norwegian films became the big winner at Europe’s largest film festival of Nordic Cinema taking place in Lübeck. Marius Holst’s King of Devil’s Island about a rebellion on a prison island in the Oslofjord in 1915, starring Stellan Skarsgård, won both the renowned NDR Award for Best Feature Film and the much coveted Lübecker Nachrichten Audience Award. Coming Home by Anders Øvergård received the Prize of the Children’s Jury. 

For the first time the Documentary Film Prize went to a Norwegian film - My Beloved - A Film about Love and Courage by Hilde Korsæth.

All three directors, Marius Holst for King of Devil’s Island (Kongen av Bastøy), Anders Øvergaard for Coming Home (Til siste hinder) and Hilde Korsæth for My Beloved - A Film about Love and Courage (Min elskede), were present at the ceremony in the Theater Lübeck on Saturday night.

Main Awards to King of Devil’s Island

The NDR Film Prize for Best Feature Film, endowed with 12.500 Euros went to King of Devil’s Island, by Marius Holst, who won the same award with Dragonflies in 2002.

The jury headed by German actress Catherine Flemming stated that “The director of the award-winning film succeeds in transforming a historical event into a gripping cinema experience with a powerful narrative: thrilling, authentic and emotional at every given moment. The film does more than reconstruct historical facts; it treats the major topics of the history of mankind, which makes it a film of high contemporary political relevance. The film is evidently based on very stringent, perfectly composed script. And the efforts undertaken by its producers, too, impressed us deeply. This is cinema at its best. This film is here to stay.”

The Audience Prize to King of Devil’s Island

The Lübecker Nachrichten Audience prize endowed with 5000 Euros is voted by the audience and again it was the Marius Holst’s film King of Devil’s Island receiving the most votes, like his film Cross my heart and hope to die did back in 1995. King of Devil’s Island recently received the Audience prize at the Hamburg Film Festival.

Coming Home Received the Children’s Prize

Four children from Lübeck select their best film of the festival endowed with 5000 Euro. The winning film was Anders Øvergaard’s debut film, Coming Home. The children’s jury stated that “What we particularly liked about the winning film was the friendship between man and animal. It also demonstrates that true friendship is one of the most important things that people can share in life.”

Documentary Film Prize to My Beloved

The Documentary Film Prize endowed with 2500 Euros goes to a socially and politically important film. For the first time, this was a Norwegian documentary, Hilde Korsæth’s My Beloved - A film About Love and Courage. The film is a touching story of two people at the intersection of love and serious illness early in life. The distinction between past, present and future are blurred when a 51 year old is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The director has followed the couple Jan Henry T. Olsen and his wife Laila Lanes as they go through a tough year, between October 2008 and October 2009.

The jury stated that “With a great sense of empathy and highly sensitive camerawork, the director has succeeded in presenting the audience with an impression of how Alzheimer’s turns the most trivial everyday routines into near insurmountable challenges.”

Award Winning Weekend for Norwegian Films

- This has been a fantastic weekend for Norwegian films at international film festivals. Last Friday, Noomi Rapace received the Best Actress Award for her role in Pål Sletaune’s Babycall at Rome Film Fest, and Turn me on, Goddamit (Jannicke Systad Jacobsen) received the distribution prize handed out to a film in the Extra section. Following up with four awards in Lübeck, makes this a wonderful weekend for Norwegian films internationally. Germany is the most important foreign market for Norwegian films, where twelve Norwegian feature films will open theatrically in 2012, says Stine Oppegaard, Head of International Relations, feature films of the Norwegian Film Institute.