Yahoo Lifestyle Göteborg Film Festival: Rúnar Rúnarsson’s ‘When The Light Breaks’ Wins Best Nordic Film
When The Light Breaks, the latest film from Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival. The award is the festival’s top competitive honor.
The award comes with a SEK 400,000 ($36,000) cash prize. The competition jury featured filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer JP Passi, filmmaker Ella Lemhagen, director Philippe Lesage, and actor Frida Gustavsson.
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The jury said Rúnarsson’s film was chosen “for its masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble.”
The flick debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The official synopsis reads: An accident plunges Iceland into national mourning, and for young art student Una, that fateful 24-hour day will change her life forever. She carries a secret, and while her friends find solace in community, Una must deal with her grief alone.
The festival’s gender-neutral acting award was handed to Andrea Brœin Hovig for her role in Love, directed by Dag Johan Haugerud. The festival’s Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award was handed to Hanami by Denise Fernandes.
The Bergman award jury featured filmmakers Dea Kulumbegashvili, Kaltrina Krasniqi, and Silje Riise Næss, Chair of the Board of The Bergman Estate. Discussing the film they said: “With nuance and tenderness, this film captures joy and sorrow of everyday life—illuminated through performances that bring forth the deep, unspoken bonds between mothers, daughters, and the communities they weave together.”
Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot won the Dragon Award for Best International Film while Family by Clara Vida took the Draken Film Award and Eirik Svensson’s Safe House won the Audience Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film. Awards handed out earlier during the festival include honorary awards for Julie Delpy and Thomas Vinterberg and the Nordic Series Script Award was handed to Pelle Rådström, screenwriter of Pressure Point.
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