And Then We Danced triumphs at Sweden's Guldbagge Awards

The favourite for Sweden’s annual film prizes walked home last night with Best Film, one of four awards, a tally matched by Aniara. 

Sweden’s candidate for this year’s Academy Awards, And Then We Danced was the big winner at last night’s Cirkus Teatret in Stockholm where it won Best Film, Best Script, written by Levan Akin, Best Actor for Georgian newcomer Levan Gelbakhiani (this year’s Shooting Star in Berlin) and Best Cinematography (Lisabi Fridell). 

The film about forbidden love in conservative Georgia had a triumphant world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and continues to seduce festivals and crowds around the world. The film was produced by French Quarter Film and Takes Film.

Read our interview with director: CLICK HERE.

The second film champion was Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s debut feature Aniara which turned all of its nominations into awards for Best Direction, Lead Actress (Emelie Garbers), Supporting Actress (Bianca Cruzeiro) and Special Effects (Arild Andersson, Per Jonsson, Andreas Wicklund). The existential space odyssey based on a poem by Swedish poet and Nobel laureate Harry Martinson was produced by Annika Rogell for Meta Film.

Elsewhere, David Dencik was crowned for his performance as the enigmatic Thomas Quick (aka Sture Bergwall) in Mikael Håfström’s drama The Perfect Patient. Roy Andersson who was nominated for Best Director (among three nods), a category for which he collected a prestigious Silver Lion in Venice, had to settle for Best Set Design, created by Anders Hellström, Frida Ekstrand Elmström and Nicklas Nilsson.

Other major awards went to Anna Eborn for her documentary Transnistra, Iceland’s experienced costume designer Margrét Einasdóttir (Rams, The Flatey Enigma) for her work on Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein’s Swoon, while the Guldbagge audience award was handed out to Ella Lemhagen’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas produced by Miso Film Sweden.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond was associated to 10 Guldbagge awards for the films Aniara, The Perfect Patient, About Endlessness, Swoon and Josefin & Florin.

Full list of Guldbagge awards 2020:

• Best Film: And Then We Danced produced by Mathilde Dedye, Ketie Danelia
• Best Director: Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja for Aniara
• Best Male Lead: Levan Gelbakhiani for And Then We Danced
• Best Female Lead: Emelie Garbers for Aniara
• Best Script: Levan Akin for And Then We Danced
• Best Supporting Actress: Bianca Cruzeiro for Aniara
• Best Supporting Actor: David Dencik for The Perfect Patient
• Best Documentary: Transnistra by Anna Eborn
• Best Editing: Erika Gonzales, Kristin Grundström and Karolina Bengtsson for the documentary Josefin & Florin
• Best Sound/Sound Design: Andreas Franck and Fredrik Dalenfjäll for 438 Days
• Best Cinematography: Lisabi Fridell for And Then We Danced
• Best Makeup: Anna-Carin Lock for The Perfect Patient
• Best Costume: Margrét Einarsdóttir for Swoon
• Best Original Music: Nathaniel Méchaly for Swoon
• Best Visual Effects: Andreas Wicklund, Per Jonsson and Arild Andersson for Aniara
• Best Set Design: Anders Hellström, Frida Ekstrand, Elmström and Nicklas Nilsson for About Endlessness
• Best Short Film: Excess Will Save You by Morgane Dziuria-Petit
• Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite by Bong Joon-ho
• Newcomer of the Year: documentary filmmaker Emily Norling
• Guldbagge Audience Award: I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Ella Lemhagen produced by Sandra Harms and Rachel Bodros Wolgers
• Honorary Award: Lasse Åberg, actor/director
• Gullspiran for outstanding contribution to children's films: Christian Ryltenius

For more information, check: www.guldbaggen.se