Double wins for Boy from Heaven, Girl Picture at Lübeck Nordic Film Days

The jury of the NDR Film Prize consisting of Karsten Willutzki (DE), Tonje Hardersen (NO), Elisabeth Lequeret (FR), Alma Pöysti (FI) and Martin Rehbock (DE) said they gave their award to Boy from Heaven for its “impeccable script and breath-taking acting”. “This simple yet complex moral thriller is a tale of power and corruption that is highly relevant today, as no one has the choice to stay away from the political, religious and social issues of our time. The setting of the story is unique, the twists and turns are nothing but amazing. This is what a modern Nordic film looks like today: congratulations to Tarik Saleh and Boy from Heaven!”

The major Swedish co-production for which Saleh earned a Best Script award at the last Cannes Film Festival is now reaching global audiences and receiving glorious reviews, notably in France where the film launched October 26 via Memento Distribution. The Swedish release via TriArt is set for November 18.

The Finnish film Girl Picture by Alli Haapasalo also collected two awards in Lübeck: the €5,000 Children’s & Youth Prize and €5,000 Youth Jury Prize. The coming-of-age film awarded earlier the Audience Prize at Sundance, was released domestically in the spring by Nordisk Film.

Finland also topped Lübeck’s accolades in the documentary genre with Ruthless Times-Songs of Care by Suzanna Helke, awarded the €5,000 Documentary Film Prize. The jury described it as a “film that shows us that profit must never be in the foreground when dealing with ageing with dignity and at the end of life.“ The film was produced by Timo Korhonen for Road Movies.

The second best documentary prize or Special Mention went to Magnus Gertten multi-awarded Nelly & Nadine.

The Danish/Icelandic/French period drama Godland by Hlynur Pálmason was handed out the €3,000 Baltic Film Prize for a Nordic Feature Film, just a week after its presentation at the Nordic Council awards ceremony as Danish candidate for the Nordic Council Film Prize.

Scanbox will release it in Denmark December 1^st.

Other Nordic awards handed out at the German film festival are the following:

• Best First Feature (€7,500) to Denmark’s The Great Silence by Katrine Brock
• Audience Prize (€5,000) to Norway’s Everybody Hates Johan by Hallvar Witzø
• Honourable Mention - Interfilm Church Prize to Finland’s The Woodcutter Story by Mikko Myllylahti
• Children’s Jury Prize (€5,000) to Denmark’s My Robot Brother by Frederik Nørgaard
• Nordic & Baltic Best Short Film (€5,000) to Norway’s The School by the Sea by Solveig Melkeraaen
• Nordic & Baltic Short Film Jury-Special Mention to Finland’s Blush-an Extraordinary Voyage by Liti Yli-Harja
  
  

The 64^th Nordic Film Days in Lübeck also handed out on its opening night the Honorary Award to Iceland’s veteran director/producer Friðrik Þór Friðriksson.

“Friðrik has left his stamp on new Icelandic cinema like no other,” said artistic director Thomas Hailer, underlining that the Icelandic director has attended almost all Nordic Film Days over the years, notably with White Whales (1987), Children of Nature (1991) and Movie Days (1994) that won an award.

Over 173 films were showcased at 212 public screenings in Lübeck, which kick started November 2 with the German premiere of the Danish documentary Music for Black Pigeons, introduced on stage by co-directors Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed.

The series section curated for the first time by journalist/festival programmer Wendy Mitchell introduced eight series: Denmark’s Carmen Curlers and The Kingdom Exodus, Iceland’s Black Sands, Finland’s Transport and Zone B, Norway’s Fenris, Sweden’s Limbo and The Lost.