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FESTIVALS Norway

Belgian film The Brand New Testament wins two prizes in Haugesund

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- Danish director Bille August and actress Ghita Nørby were also awarded at the 43rd Norwegian International Film Festival

Belgian film The Brand New Testament wins two prizes in Haugesund
Ghita Nørby receives her award (© Haugesund Festival)

Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael’s The Brand New Testament [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaco van Dormael
film profile
]
has won two prizes at the 43rd Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, which ended on Friday (21 August). “We were never in any doubt that this film was an obvious winner,” said the jury, which gave it the festival’s Ray of Sunshine, with a Special Mention for Norwegian director Kari Anne Moe’s documentary Rebels (Pøbler). The Brand New Testament also received the Audience Award. “It is impossible to go home from the cinema without having been deeply touched by this film,” the jurors concluded. 

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The Norwegian Film Critics decided that German director Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Schipper
film profile
]
was this year’s Best Film, and granted an honourable mention to Norwegian director Joachim Trier's Louder Than Bombs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile
]
. The ecumenical Andreas Award went to French director David Oelhoffen’s Far from Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]

Haugesund mayor Petter Steen Jr presented Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August with Haugesund’s Playing Faun – the honorary prize given to a good ambassador for the festival. August had his latest film, Silent Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, in the festival programme, and his lead actress, Ghita Nørby, collected the festival and president Liv Ullmann’s Honorary Award. 

The Norwegian Cinema Association, Film & Kino, gave its Aamot statuettes to former Haugesund festival director and culture chief Gunnar Johan Løvvik for ”his enthusiasm and commitment to Norwegian cinema”, and to Norwegian sound designer Gisle Tveito.

New Nordic Films – the festival’s industry section – screened 22 new Nordic titles, with 16 having their market debuts. The programme introduced 11 works in progress, while 24 international projects and five Nordic scripts were presented at the Nordic Co-Production and Finance Market. The prize for Best Pitch went to Teenage Jesus, a feature project within the Nordic Genre Boost batch of titles, from Danish director Marie Grahtø and producers Amalie Lyngbo Hjort and Peter Hyldahl, of Beofilm, who received a slot for the Producers Network at next year’s Cannes International Film Festival from deputy general delegate Christian Jeune.

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