February 4, 2014
Two films supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond – Pirjo Honkasalo’s Concrete Night (Betoniyo) and Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead have just received high national recognitions in Finland and Iceland.
On Sunday, during the annual Jussi Film Awards held in Helsinki, Concrete Night collected six major awards including Best Finnish film of the year and Best Director. The 2013 Nordic Council Film Prize nominee Open Up to Me won Best Script (Simo Halinen) and Best Leading Actress (Leea Klemola) while Eero Aho was voted Best Leading Actor for 8-Ball. Besides Concrete Night, Nordisk Film & TV Fond was associated to Heart of a Lion’s Jussi for Best Supporting Actor (Jasper Pääkkönen) and Finnish Blood-Swedish Heart’s wins for Best Music (Olli Tuomainen) and Best Documentary.
In Iceland, the nominations for the national Edda Film & TV awards were announced on Thursday. Bragason’s Metalhead receives 16 nominations including Best Film, Director, Script and Leading Actress. The other titles running for Best Film - Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men and Marteinn Thorisson’s XL got 14 and 11 nominations each.
The comedy series Astridur 2 (Saga Film) was nominated for Best Leading Actor (Kjartan Guðjónsson), Leading Actress (Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir) and Supporting Actor (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson). The Edda Awards ceremony will be held in Reykjavik on February 22.
For the full list of awards check: www.jussit.fi and www.eddan.is