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Sami Blood Wins This Year’s Dragon Award Best Nordic Film
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On Saturday evening, Sami Blood, directed by Amanda Kernell, won the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. The prize is worth one million SEK, which makes it one of the world’s largest film prizes. The prize is financed by Volvo Car Group, Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.
Sami Blood tells the story of a teenage Sámi girl, Elle Marja (Lene Cecilia Sparrok), who resolves to leave behind her Sámi identity and find a new life in Uppsala.
The jury’s motivation: The award goes to a film that has a universal theme told through a painfully topical portrait of a minority struggle. The journey of the main character, the hard choices and sacrifices she has to make are not only dramatically well founded, but also manage to unfold a gripping story about identity in a harsh historical context. An impressive first film with a powerful lead performance.
This year’s jury consisted of Ita Zbroniec-Zajt, cinematographer, Hisham Zaman, director,Jacob Neiiendam, festival and artistic director at CPH:PIX and Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, scriptwriter.
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Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary
This year’s Dragon Award for best documentary went to Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard for The War Show. The prize is worth SEK 100,000 and is presented by the Swedish Union of Tenants (Hyresgästföreningen).
In The War Show the radio journalist Obaidah Zytoon personally and engagingly relates how the Arab Spring and the war in Syria have affected her and her friends.
The jury’s motivation: The award goes to a monumental and uncompromising film that combines extremely strong mate-rial with a unique and persistent voice of a generation. This overwhelming audiovisual experience holds us in a tight emotional grip as we live through the lives of an extraordinary woman and her friends, experience their lust for life, love and freedom, pitched against a devastating war. This film is a punch in the face to all of us. A reminder of our co-existence.
This year’s jury consisted of Iris Olsson, artistic director at DocPoint, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, director and Fredrik Egerstrand, director.
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The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award
This year’s Ingmar Bergman award for best debut went to The Impossible Picture by Sandra Wollner.
The Impossible Picture is a unique story about a girl suffering from polio and her insight into the frailty of life and her grandmother’s watchful eye.
The jury’s motivation: The winner is a film that we find bold and courageous in its form. Its language of cinema is quite unique and it is able to reveal things without showing them and it has this simplicity that leads to sophisticated and profound meaning.
The jury consisted of Tran Anh Hung, director; Behnam Behzadi, director and Kerstin Brunnberg, journalist.
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Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award
This year’s Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award goes to Sophia Olsson for Sami Blood.
The jury’s motivation: The cinematography of the winning film elevates the story with its elegance and simplicity. The strong visual choices support the storytelling. In a faithful way necessary dramaturgic tools are used to frame the main character in the harsh environment she is surrounded by.
The jury that elects the winner of the Sven Nykvist award is the same as the jury for Dragon Award Best Nordic Award.
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FIPRESCI Award
This year’s critics’ award, FIPRESCI, goes to Dome Karukoski and the film Tom of Finland. The prize is handed out by the International Federation of Film Critics and goes to one of the films in the competition Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
Tom of Finland opened the festival with its portrayal of the groundbreaking illustrator and gay icon, Tom of Finland.
The jury’s motivation: For the way the director and his team portray the life of such an iconic character, balancing a well done execution and story development, and taking us through the decades thanks to a clever use of music and production design.
The jury consisted of Victor López González and Bodo Schönfelder.
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The Lorens Award
This year’s Lorens Award for best producer goes to Anton Máni Svansson, Lise Orheim Stender, Jesper Morthorst and Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, for Heartstone.
The jury’s motivation: The award goes to a group of producers who have mastered the organic sensitivity in film. In a beautifully coherent production we get an effortless portrait of the search of one’s identity in a con-servative society. This film is a great example of a successful Nordic collaboration.
The jury consisted of Ali Boriri, STOPP, Rebecka Lafrenz, producent and Jacob Neiiendam, konstnärlig ledare CPH:PIX.
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Audience Dragon Award Best Feature Film
Their Finest by director Lone Scherfig received the Audience Dragon Award Best Feature Film.
During the festival week, the audience has been able to vote by text message for their favorite film in the program.
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Audience Dragon Award Best Nordic Film
Beyond Dreams directed by Rojda Sekersöz was given the Audience Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. Beyond Dreams was one of the contributions nominated for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. The audience cast its votes in conjunction with film screenings.
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