Gabriela Pichler’s second feature took home Goteborg Film Festival’s highest honor. “Amateurs” was named as the winner of the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. Included with the award is a cash bursary of 1 million Swedish krona, or around $125,000 USD, which as THR notes, makes “the Dragon Award one of the world’s most lucrative film honors.”
Set in a small Swedish community, “Amateurs” tells the story of the town’s attempt to draw in a German discount supermarket to bring in jobs. Local youths are asked to produce films about the community with unexpected results. According to THR, “The Goteborg jury praised ‘Amateurs’ for its ‘vibrant, nuanced, and intelligent portrait of a small town in contemporary Sweden, which embraces different generations, backgrounds, and mediums.”
Pilcher’s first feature, “Eat Sleep Die,” was released in 2012. The drama centers on an Eastern European immigrant working in Sweden.
The Audience Prize for Best Nordic Film went to Iram Haq’s “What Will People Say,” a portrait of a Pakistani girl living in Norway. The pic also earned a special mention from the jury.
Sofia Haugan’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” earned a special mention from the documentary jury. The doc sees Haugan reuniting with her father, a former inmate dealing with addiction issues.
The Ingmar Bergman Award for Best Debut Feature went to Christina Pinheiro’s “Menina,” a drama about a 10-year-old girl growing up in a Portuguese family in France.
Sophia Olsson took home the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award for “The Charmer,” a psycholocial drama that follows an Iranian man determined to meet a women who can help secure his stay in Denmark.
Isold Uggadottir’s “And Breathe Normally” earned the international film critics honor, the Fipresci. The pic explores the intersecting lives of an Icelandic mother and an asylum seeker from Guinea-Bissau.
Juliette Bincoche received the fest’s Honorary Dragon Award for Lifetime Achievement and Alicia Vikander won the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award, given in recognition of Scandinavian talent.
