Three Nordic films have made nominated for the prestigious 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood. Vying for Best Foreign Language Film are the Danish historical drama A Royal Affair and Norwegian epic Kon-Tiki, both supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, while Searching for Sugar Man is the first Swedish candidate ever running for Best Documentary. The announcement was made on Jan 10 in Los Angeles.
Hanne Palmquist, head of Nordisk Film & TV Fond, a primary institute supporting and promoting the Nordic film industry said, “A Royal Affair and Kon-Tiki-are nominated for an Oscar. What an achievement! Nordisk Film & TV Fond is proud to have supported both titles substantially. I wish to congratulate the teams behind each film – you have proven world class talent and now have a well-deserved challenge ahead of you. GO FOR IT!”
“The financing of A Royal Affair and Kon-Tiki are based on a strong Nordic collaboration between film institutes, regional funds, TV-stations and distributors. Without that collaboration it would not be possible to produce such high quality films with a wide Nordic and international audience. Let’s focus on that even more in the future,” he said.
Palmquist also congratulated Searching for Sugar Man, which he deemed to be “one of the most surprising and touching films of the year – a true fairytale.”
Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair is the ninth nomination for Denmark in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscar and three Danish films have won the golden statuette: In a Better World (2010), Pelle the Conqueror (1989) and Babette’s Feast (1988).
A Royal Affair has had a startling career since its world premiere at the 2012 Berlinale where it collected two Silver Bears. The Zentropa production has sold to all foreign territories including the US (Magnolia Pictures) and in the UK (Metrodome) where it made history as the biggest Danish language film at the UK box office. At home A Royal Affair was the third most successful Danish film of 2012.
Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki is the fifth Norwegian Oscar candidate for Best Foreign Language Film. Last year’s biggest grossing film in Norway was produced by Aage Aaberge for Nordisk Film Production in co-production with UK producer Jeremy Thomas who won a Best Picture Oscar in 1987 for The Last Emperor. Kon-Tiki was released by The Weinstein Company in the US. It will open in Sweden on March 22 via Nordisk Film.
A Royal Affair and Kon Tiki will compete at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film against Michael Haneke’s Amour (Austria), Pablo Larrain’s No (Chile) and Kim Nguyen’s War Witch (Canada).
Both Nordic titles are also running for a Golden Globe and the winners will be announced this Sunday in Hollywood.
Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugar Man about the unlikely resurrection of singer-songwriter Rodriguez has been a true crowd-pleaser throughout 2012, collecting numerous awards and selling over 430,000 tickets from a dozen territories. The film produced by Bendjelloul, Peter Schildt and Simon Chinn is handled by Sony Picture Classics in the US. It is nominated for a BAFTA award in the UK and for six Guldbagge awards in Sweden (including Best Film and Best Documentary).
Sweden is also represented at the Academy awards 2013 in the category Sound Editing with no less than two out of five nominations for Per Hallberg (Skyfall) and Paul N.J. Ottosson (Zero Dark Thirty).
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 24 in Los Angeles.
Two other Nordic films supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond are also vying for a BAFTA award in the Best Foreign Language Film Category: Morten Tyldum’s thriller Headhunters and Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. The winners will be announced on February 10 in London.
