The award goes to writer/director Haugerud and the film’s producers Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum. This is the second time Haugerud wins the Film Prize with a Motlys production.
The winning film was announced Tuesday night in a TV show broadcasted by the Icelandic public service company RÚV on the Nordic Council’s 2024 awards. Norwegian writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud and producers Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum are all awarded for the film Sex.
The film prize comes with «Nordlys» statuettes and a sum of DKK 300,000, which is shared among the director/writer and the producers. This reflects the collaborative nature of filmmaking, highlighting that film as an art form is the result of a collaboration.
The film Sex follows two men in heterosexual marriages whose unexpected experiences challenge their perceptions of sexuality, gender, and identity. The film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2024, where it won three awards. In August Sex received no fewer than four Norwegian Amanda Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Direction, Best Leading Role, and Best Supporting Role.
A pan-Nordic jury selected the film as the winner out of six Nordic candidates, which earlier had been pre-spected by national juries. The 2024 Nordic jury consisted of Executive Director Mikaela Westerlund (Finland), professor Heidi Hilarius-Kalkau Philipsen (Denmark), producers Klaus Georg Hansen (Greenland) and Jóna Finnsdóttir (Iceland) and journalists Inger Merete Hobbelstad (Norway) and Emma Gray Munthe (Sweden). The jury’s motivation for selecting the winner:
“Sex is never just sex. Nowhere is that more evident than in Sex, director and writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s philosophically inclined comedy. In this story of two friends, who discover that their sexuality and gender can expand in surprising ways, the film makes the case that life is fluid and the world is constantly being rearranged. It does so cleverly, compassionately, and hilariously. Sex is produced by Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum for Motlys.”
Having received the prize Haugerud said:
“It is an honour to receive the Nordic Council Film Prize. I am particularly grateful for the jury's reasoning, which I perceive as a confirmation that with this film we have achieved some of what we hoped for."
This is the second time Haugerud and Motlys received the Nordic Council Film Prize. Haugerud and Sæther won the Prize in 2020 for Beware of Children (Barn). Other previous acclaimed winners include directors like Joachim Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Aki Kaurismäki, Ruben Östlund, May el-Toukhy and Benedikt Erlingsson. For the complete list: CLICK HERE.
Twice rewarded producer Yngve Sæther expands on the uniqueness of Haugerud’s films:
"There is something about Dag Johan's scripts and films that makes them stand out as something entirely unique, not just in the Norwegian and Nordic film landscape, but also in an international context. He speaks with a quiet voice, in an almost everyday manner, about existential issues that concern us all, whether it's sex, dreams, or love. It all becomes more than just a film. Winning the Nordic Council Film Prize for the second time together feels very significant."
To Hauff Hvattum, a recognition of this magnitude is something new and exciting:
“Receiving the Nordic Council Film Prize for Sex together with Dag Johan and Yngve is an incredibly great honour, and a confirmation and recognition of Dag Johan's artistry. This trilogy has been a challenging, but above all unique and rewarding journey for all of us. This award was first hard to me to even grasp, as I have never received anything similar.”
Sex is the first film of the trilogy Sex Dreams Love (Sex Drømmer Kjærlighet). Attacks on people with diverse sexualities motivated Haugerud to create the triology:
“The motivation for this trilogy was to initiate a conversation about sexuality, masculinity, homosexuality, and Christian faith in a way that could both open up and nuance these topics. The recent attacks from free church organisations on people with diverse sexualities and gender identities demonstrate that having these conversations at this time is crucial.”
When travelling around the world with Sex Haugerud, Sæther and Hauff Hvattum have often been asked the same question:
“A recurring question from people in countries outside the Nordic region is whether openness to these topics is typical of the Nordics. All I can say is that I hope it is; I also hope that the award helps to emphasise precisely that.”
The film prize winners will also be celebrated at the Nordic Council’s award ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 29 together with the winners of the awards in literature, children and young people’s literature, music, and the environment.
Official trailer:
The other nominated films this year were: