Maria Sødahl's (photo) feature debut Limbo is running in ten categories including Best Director and Best Script at this year's nominations for the Amanda awards, Norway's annual film prizes given out during Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. King of Devil's Island comes second with eight nominations including Best Film. Both films are supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
"With a record 34 Norwegian films, this year's nominations process was truly comprehensive," admitted Gunnar Johan Løvvik, director of the festival and head of the Amanda Committee.
Limbo gets the most nominations (including Best Actress for Line Verndal and Best Supporting Actress for Sweden's Lena Endre) and Sødahl a second chance to win for Best Script and Best Director like at the other Norwegian film awards - the Cannon Awards last April. However the film failed to make it in Best Film where King of Devil's Island will compete against the documentary Tears of Gaza and the thriller Nokas.
After her very successful exposure at world festivals since the beginning of the year, the up and coming director Anne Sewitsky has seven chances to win a statuette with her three nominations for Happy Happy (including Best Actress for Agnes Kittelsen) and four nominations for Totally True Love (including Best Director and Best Children's Film).
Veteran director Bent Hamer gets three nominations for Home for Christmas: Best Supporting Actor (Trond Fausa Aursvåg), Best Photo (John Christian Rosenlund) and Best Sound Design (Petter Fladeby). Three films dealing with war issues are competing for Best Documentary: Vibeke Løkkeberg's Tears of Gaza (Nero Media), Elsa Kvamme's Legenes krig (Alert Film) and Jon Haukeland's Reunion-Ten Years after the War(Medieoperatørene).
The 27th Amanda awards will be given out on August 20 at Haugesund's Concert Hall, as a prelude to the Norwegian International Film Festival (August 17-26).
For the full list of nominations, see: http://www.filmfestivalen.no/