Saturday evening, Trier’s The Worst Person in the World won 5 Amandas including Best Film while Trier’s writing partner Vogt collected four awards for his own chiller The Innocents.

Norway’s annual film awards was a national celebration of the achievements of Trier and Vogt who over the last year have impressed international film festivals and crowds alike with their respective films.

Renate Reinsve who conquered the Cannes jury 2021 and collected over 20 nominations worldwide for her standout performance as Julie in The Worst Person in the World, was expectedly crowned Best Actress, while her partner in the film, Anders Danielsen Lie won Best Supporting Actor. Trier and Vogt shared the Script award.

While picking the Audience Award, Trier paid tribute to the silver screen experience: “The Audience Award is a very nice award now that people are talking about the death of cinema. I have received messages from people who have gone to the cinema and seen this film. If you think the cinema is going to die, just take your kids to the cinema. The cinema is not going to die”, he said.

The Worst Person in the World produced by Andrea Beretsen Ottman and Thomas Robsahm for Oslo Pictures, is Trier’s biggest success in Norwegian cinemas with over 261,000 admissions.

One Amanda that didn’t land in Trier’s hand is Best Director, which was bestowed to his friend Vogt for the supernatural thriller The Innocents, produced by Mer Film. The feature which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard 2021, also won Best Cinematography (Sturl Brandth Grøvlen), Editing (Jens Christian Fodstad) and Sound Design (Gisle Tveito & Gustaf Berger).

Versatile and prolific actor Pål Sverre Hagen was voted Best Actor for his role in Bent Hamer’s English language The Middle Man, also awarded Best Production Design (Diana Magnus).

Hallvar Witzø’s comedy Everybody Loves Johan, with Pål Sverre Hage in the starring role, was honoured for its score (Jørund Fluge Samuelsen) and Make Up (Asta Hafthorsdaottir & Thomas Foldberg).

Elsewhere, the box office hit Three Wishes for Cinderella, watched by nearly 600,000 Norwegians, won Best Children and Costume Design (Flore Vauville). The feature film debut by seasoned actress and TV director Cecilie Mosli was produced by Fredrick Howard and Petter Borgli.

Single Amanda wins were handed out to:

  • John Andreas Andersen’s The North Sea - Best VFX team for supervisor Arne Kaupang, Theodor Flo-Groeneboom (Rebel Unit), Morten Jacobsen (Storm Studios), Lars Erik Hansen (Gimpville) and Magnus Olsson (Filmgate)
  • Petter Næss’ comedy Nothing to Laugh About - Best Supporting Actress (Sara Khorami)
  • Petter Aaberg and Sverre Kvamme’s Young & Afraid - Best Documentary. The raw and personal film about mental health had its first breakthrough in Haugesund last year where it won the audience award.
  • Christoffer Lossius’ Observasjon - Best Short Film.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once - Best Foreign Film (Another World Entertainment).

Seasoned producer Aage Aaberge (Kon Tiki, The 12th Man) whose career in film spans four decades, received an Honorary Amanda. Aaberge’s anticipated WW2 drama Narvik, is due for national release on Christmas day via Nordisk Film.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond is associated to 14 awards for The Worst Person in the World, The Innocents, The Middle Man and Three Wishes for Cinderella.