The jury of the Kristiansand’s International Children’s Film Festival consisting of film critic Roy Søbstad, director Christian Lo and Nordisk Film Cinema Director of Programming Christian Berg, described You Never Fly Alone as a ‘warm and charming film with elements of both drama and romance. They added: “The animation is beautiful and of high quality, and the film has an appealing tempo. This is a kind of Pixar film with an Icelandic twist that will appeal to both young and older audiences all over the country.”

The film directed by Gunnar Karlsson and Árni Ásgeirson for GunHil and Cyborn has sold more than 23,000 tickets in Icelandic cinemas, and made it in the top 10 in Russia, Mexico and Argentina only two weeks after its premiere. Arri Media handles world sales.

The 21^st Kristiansand Children Film Festival screened more than 100 films from 27 countries between April 24-29. Other awards were:

• Best Norwegian Short Film 2018 to Boghole by Torfinn Iversen (Norway)
• ECFA Award 2018 to Supa Modo directed by Likarion Wainana (Germany, Kenya) 
• Audience Award to Operation Shadowman by Grethe Bøe-Waal (Norway) 
• Youth Jury Award to My Brother Simple by Marcus Goller (Germany) 
• Barn i Byen Award to Los Bando by Christian Lo (Norway) 
• Best Pitch Award to Lille Kriger by Nick Hegreberg (Norway). 

Six upcoming Nordic films were pitched as Works in Progress at the ‘Films on the Horizon’ strand: the Swedish films Alone in Space and Halvdan-Almost a Viking, the Finnish film Diva of Finland, Danish film Captain Bimse, as well as the Norwegian films Cattle Hill from Qvisten Animation, and dance movie Battle.