Nominees For 2021 Nordic Council Film Prize
On Tuesday, five nominees were announced for the 2021 Nordic Council Film Prize, which Dag Johan Haugerud won for Norway last year with Beware Of Children (Barn), a study of tragedy, class and guilt in a middle class suburb of Oslo.
The Nordic Council Film Prize aims to raise interest in the Nordic cultural community and recognise outstanding artistic initiatives. Its nominees must have deep roots in Nordic culture, be of high artistic quality, and distinguish themselves by their artistic originality.
The winning entry, to be announced on 2nd November 2021 in Copenhagen, will receive DKK 300,000 to be shared equally between the screenwriter, director and producer, underlining how film as an art form is a collaborative effort.
The nominees for the 2021 Nordic Council Film Prize are…
DENMARK
Flee (Flugt) by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
The extraordinary true story of Amin, on the verge of a marriage which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time. This secret that he has been hiding for over twenty years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself which began with a dramatic journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan to Denmark.
FINLAND
Any Day Now (Ensilumi) by Hamy Ramezan
13-year old Ramin Mehdipour and his Iranian family live in a refugee centre in Finland, but just as Ramin starts to enjoy the school holidays, the family find out that their asylum application has been denied. They file a final appeal and try to remain positive as they go about their lives but the danger of deportation looms over them.
ICELAND
Alma by Kristín Jóhannesdóttir
After witnessing her father’s brutal murder, three-year-old Alma and her mother fled their war-torn homeland and settled in Iceland. Now, 25 years later, Alma is serving time in a psych ward for murdering her boyfriend, which she can’t remember. But when she discovers the boyfriend is still alive, Alma decides to escape and kill him after all.
NORWAY
Gunda by Victor Kossakovsky
Through encounters with mother sow Gunda, two ingenious cows, and a scene-stealing one-legged chicken, Kossakovsky recalibrates our moral universe with a documentary that reminds us of the inherent value of life, and the mystery of all animal consciousness, including our own.
SWEDEN
Tigers (Tigrar) by Ronnie Sandahl
The true story of football prodigy Martin Bengtsson, who was bought by one of Italy’s most prestigious clubs at the tender age of sixteen. However, in a world where everything has a price tag, he soon finds that his dream comes at a very high cost in terms of sacrifice, dedication, pressure and loneliness.