The Act of Killing was among 15 Nordic documentaries that were running for the €11,000 Best Nordic Documentary award sponsored by DR, YLE, RUV, NRK and SVT. The jury consisting of Danish director Christian Bonke (2012 winner of the award for Ballroom Dancing), Tribeca Film Festival programmer Cara Cusumano and BBC Storyville Commissioner and Programmer Kate Townsend said they had chosen the film ‘for its ground-breaking approach to the documentary form, and its unflinching confrontation with atrocity, mendacity and the human face of evil.’
The film produced by Final Cut for Real with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond is currently screening in US cinemas via Drafthouse Films that has also teamed up with the global media company VICE, the integrated digital platform VHX and the film’s production company to make The Act of Killing available for free to Indonesian people starting September 30, the anniversary of the start of the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia.
Nearly 800 people from 20 countries attended Nordisk Panorama and its parallel industry events. At the 20th Nordisk Forum for co-financing organised in conjunction with Filmkontakt Nord, 24 documentary projects were pitched such as Fridthjof Film’s Human Female Sexuality by Danish filmmaker Lea Glob, winner of the 2011 Nordic Talent Pitch Prize. This year’s brand new initiative part of the Nordisk Panorama Market was the NP Work in Progress. Among the six projects pitched were Love & Engineering produced by Finland’s Making Movies, and Raging Grannies produced by Norway’s Faction Film, both supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.