06/03/2017 - Screenwriter Rasmus Heisterberg’s first directorial effort was awarded by the Danish film critics at the annual ceremony in Copenhagen over the weekend

Danish actor Søren Malling with his Bodil Award for Best Actor, for his performance in Parents (© Peter Toubro)

Danish screenwriter Rasmus Heisterberg had worked on 19 films by other directors before he wrote and directed In the Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Rasmus Heisterberg
film profile] last year – and on Saturday (4 March), the movie won a Bodil Award for Best Danish Feature when the Danish Film Critics celebrated the 70th anniversary of their annual prize and presented this year’s winners at Copenhagen’s Conservatory Concert Hall. The portrait of four students in their twenties, who live together in an apartment in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district, has previously received the Danish Film Academy’s Robert for Best Film for Children and Young Audiences.

The award ceremony was dominated by first-time directors: actor-turned-director Christian Tafdrup’s feature debut, Parents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
film profile], bagged a number of statuettes: Best Actor (Søren Malling), Best Original Screenplay (Tafdrup) – which was honoured for the first time – and Best Cinematographer (Maria von Hausswolff), adding the Henning Bahs Award for Jette Lehmann’s production design.

Andreas Møl Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon’s first effort, The War Show [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Dalsgaard
film profile], which was named Best Documentary, depicts the uprising against the Syrian regime during the Arab Spring in 2011. The “personal road movie” following radio host Zytoon and her friends on a journey from euphoria to tragedy won Best Film in the Venice Days, and was given Göteborg’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary.

Presented for the first time in collaboration with streaming services Blockbuster, Viaplay and Filmstriben, the Streaming Prize was voted for by audiences and went to Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Danish thriller A Conspiracy of Faith [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the third and latest instalment in the “Department Q” franchise, based on Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’snovels. In the cinemas, it sold more than 700,000 tickets.

Here is the full list of the 2017 Bodil Award winners:

Best Danish Feature
In the Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Rasmus Heisterberg
film profile] – Rasmus Heisterberg (Denmark) 

Best Actress
Trine Dyrholm – The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] (Denmark/Sweden/the Netherlands)

Best Actor 
Søren Malling – Parents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
film profile] (Denmark) 

Best Supporting Actress 
Victoria Carmen Sonne – In the Blood

Best Supporting Actor 
Lars Mikkelsen – The Day Will Come [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Denmark/Sweden)

Best Non-US Feature
Toni Erdmann [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Maren Ade
film profile] – Maren Ade (Germany/Austria)

Best US Feature:
The Revenant – Alejandro González Iñárritu

Best Cinematographer 
Maria von Hausswolff – Parents

Best Documentary 
The War Show [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Dalsgaard
film profile] – Andreas Møl Dalsgaard, Obaidah Zytoon (Denmark/Finland/Syria) 

Best Original Screenplay
Christian Tafdrup – Parents

Special Bodil 
Director/chairwoman of the Danish Film Directors Association Christina Rosendahl 

Honorary Bodil 
Actor Henning Jensen

Henning Bahs Award 
Production designer Jette Lehmann – Parents

Streaming Prize
A Conspiracy of Faith [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Hans Petter Moland (Denmark/Germany/Sweden/Norway)