Welcome back: This summer’s Nordic news highlights

Danish director Mads Mengel’s debut feature The Guest (Gæsten) represented the Nordics in the Crystal Globe competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which celebrated its 60th edition – as well as 80 years since the A-list festival was held for the very first time – from July 3 to 11.

Far beyond merely representing, the Danish film won both the Special Jury Prize and the award for Best Director. With Simon Bennebjerg and Josephine Park as other central cast members, the story centres around an estranged mother turning up unannounced at a family celebration, played by Trine Dyrholm in a tour de force performance. The Guest is produced by Victor Cunha for Monolit Film, while LevelK handles international sales.

Another prominent Nordic delegate at the Czech fest was Norwegian director and twice Oscar-nominated screenwriter Eskil Vogt, who served as a member of this year’s Crystal Globe jury.

Two Nordic films won two top prizes each at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, including the main award for Best Film to the Finnish horror film Nightborn (Yön Lapsi) by Hanna Bergholm. The Canadian event is considered one of the three most important genre film festivals (together with Sitges and Fantastic Fest), and celebrated its 30th edition from July 16 to August 2 – with Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s new feature Her Private Hell as the opening film.

Finnish filmmaker Bergholm’s sophomore feature Nightborn, which premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition earlier this year, stars Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint as a couple who move to a house in the deep forests of Finland. In addition to the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film, lead actress Haarla received one of the festival’s two actor awards for Outstanding Performance. Nightborn is produced by Daniel Kuitunen for Komeetta with co-production from Lithuania, France and the UK, and has received support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The Cheval Noir Award for Best Directing was handed to Danish helmer Kasper Kalle for the also NFTVF-supported No Rest for the Wicked (Denmark/Faroe Islands/Iceland), while the other Outstanding Performance Award went to Danish actor Pilou Asbæk for his lead role in the same film. This vampire flick, set in the Faroe Islands in 1862, is produced by Lars Bredo Rahbæk for SF Studios.

Furthermore, the Fantasia fest’s Cheval Noir jury gave their Special Mention of the Jury: Full Ensemble to the ensemble cast of Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s sci-fi thriller Hot Spot. This Polish feature is co-produced by Sweden, Greece and Norway, with Swedish actress Noomi Rapace among its central cast members. In the festival’s international short film competition, the surreal Norwegian thriller Mancave by Fredrik S. Hana won the award for Best Short Film. In addition, fellow Norwegian Vegard Dahle’s zombie comedy project Grandmonster took home the top Outpost Award of CAD$15,000 in post-production services at Fantasia’s Frontières Co-Production Market.

At the Annecy International Animation Festival (June 13-19), Hold it Together (Sundruð) by French-Malian, Reykjavik-based Fan Sissoko won the André Martin Award for a French Short Film. The animated short is produced by Compass Films’ Heather Millard in Iceland and Komawé’s Stéphanie Launay in France, in co-production with Belgian Artémis Productions.

Italy’s Giffoni Film Festival held its 56th edition from July 17 to 25, continuing a long-lasting devotion to cinema for children and young audiences, who also make up the juries. Two Nordic films were also among this festival’s winners:

The ECFA Special Award – Best European Film for Children was presented to the Danish feature Mira, directed by Marie Limkilde, screened in the Elements +10 section. “We honour a film that, with humour and tenderness, captures the emotional world of the transition between childhood and adolescence with rare sincerity and warmth,” starts the jury’s reasoning for the award. With a screenplay by Ida Åkerstrøm Knudsen, the film is based on the book series of the same name written by Sabine Lemire and illustrated by Rasmus Bregnhøi. Producers are Morten Kaufmann and Signe Leick Jensen for Toolbox Film.

The ACEC Award in the Generator +15 section at Giffoni went to the Swedish feature Nipster, directed by Norwegian Sunniva Eir Tangvik Kveum, for “its originality, narrative rhythm and nuanced exploration of complex issues without judging its characters”. The film, written by Sarah Olsson, tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl (Saga Stenman) who gets involved in an eco-fascist organisation. Adam Lunneborg produces for Carbs Film, with co-production from Film i Skåne.

At Raindance Film Festival, the independent film festival which took place in London from June 18 to 27, directors Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg and Sofie Rørdam won the award for Best Debut Director for Walls - Akinni Inuk. The Greenlandic feature doc world premiered at CPH:DOX in 2025, where it won the Nordic:DOX Award for Best Nordic Documentary, and was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize the same year. Walls - Akinni Inuk is produced by Emile Hertling Péronard for Ánorâk Film, while Inuk Silis Høegh serves as executive producer.

Icelandic producer Sigurjón Sighvatsson will be honoured with the Raimondo Rezzonico Prize at the 79th Locarno International Film Festival, which runs from August 5 to 15.

Among the Nordic films selected for Locarno is Swedish-Danish Maria Bäck’s Brave New Love (Fagre nye kærlighed), which is competing for the prestigious Golden Leopard Award. Central roles in the Danish majority production are played by Norwegian actors Kathrine Thorborg Johansen and Anders Danielsen Lie, together with Simon Sears and Noemi Carbone Mannov from Denmark and Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia.

Brave New Love is co-produced by Sweden and Greece, and marks the first Danish film in Locarno’s main competition since Hlynur Pálmason’s Winter Brothers (Vinterbrødre) in 2017 – for which Elliott Crosset Hove won the Best Actor Award. Also in this year’s Golden Leopard competition is Vietnamese director Lê Bảo’s Hearing (Thính Giác), with Norway’s Stær Films among its co-producers.

Swedish cinematographer Gustav Danielsson has received a nomination for the 78th Emmy Awards in the category Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour). Danielsson is nominated for the HBO Max fantasy series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and more specifically as Director of Photography of the episode In the Name of the Mother.

Several Nordic names are among the 529 artists and executives who are invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year. These include Norwegian actress Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård, Norwegian producers Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Maria Ekerhovd, and Swedish writer/director Tarik Saleh, who is invited in the Writers category.

In the Documentary category are the Danish Oscar winner Mr. Nobody against Putin’s producer Helle Faber, together with the film’s American-born director David Borenstein (as well as its Czech co-producers), and director of President and Democrats, Camilla Nielsson, again from Denmark. Also in the doc section are producer Ingvil Giske and editor Robert Stengård from Norway, both invited for The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Ibelin) and The Painter and the Thief (Kunstneren og tyven).

Three Danes are to be found among the invitees in the category for editors, namely Rebekka Lønqvist, Nicolaj Monberg and Olivia Neergaard-Holm. Other invited Nordic professionals include casting director Tanja Grunwald and make-up artist Anne Cathrine Sauerberg (both from Denmark), costume designers Anna Vilppunen and Ellen Ystehede (from Finland and Norway, respectively) and Norwegian visual effects artist Espen Nordahl.