Egil Haskjold Larsen’s refugee drama was voted Best Norwegian documentary at the 40th Grimstad Norwegian International Short Film Festival (June 14-18).

Haskjold Larsen’s poetic film about 3 year-old Lean as she makes her way from Syria to Sweden was running against 11 other Norwegian documentary features. The film produced by Sant & Usant has been a festival hit and crowd-pleaser since its world premiere at CPH:DOX where it won a Special Mention from the Nordix:DOX section.  It went on winning the Emerging International Filmmaker Award at Hotdocs and the Youth Jury Award at Sheffield. Taskovski Films handles world sales.

Honorary Mentions in the feature length documentary section went to Nowhere to Hide by Zaradasht Ahmed and Thank You for the Rain by Julia Dahl.

The Golden Chair for Best Short Film was handed out to Strim by Aleksander Johan Andreassen who also won an Honourable Mention for his Editing and Sound Design.

Bronsegud won Best Norwegian Music Video, France’s The Geneva Convention Best International Short, the Norwegian short I’m Free by Edvard Karijord and Bendik Mondal won the Terje Vigen Award and The Hunger by Kenneth Karlstad the Norwegian Film critics Award.