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STOCKHOLM 2015 Awards

Louder Than Bombs triumphs at the Stockholm Film Festival

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- Joachim Trier’s first English-language feature has won the top prize – the 7.5 kg Bronze Horse – in the international competition

Louder Than Bombs triumphs at the Stockholm Film Festival
Norwegian director Joachim Trier with his Bronze Horse (© Carla Orrego Veliz)

Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs [+see also:
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– Norway’s first contender for the Palme d’Or at Cannes since 1979 – was voted Best Film in the international competition of the 26th Stockholm International Film Festival, which ended yesterday (22 November). It thus received the top prize, the 7.5 kg Bronze Horse, after the festival screened a total of 190 films from 70 countries, with 21 entries in the international competition. 

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“An aesthetic masterpiece, a film that innovatively uses all cinematic components to move freely between present, past, dream and imagination. With this tightly woven family drama, the director gradually patches together our broken inner places and makes us visible to ourselves – and to each other,” said the jury of Trier’s first English-language feature.

Starring Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid, Louder Than Bombs tells the story of famous war photographer Isabelle Reed (Huppert), who died three years ago, apparently in a car accident. Before opening an exhibition of her work, her husband (Byrne) reunites with their two sons, and they struggle to reconcile their feelings for the wife and mother they remember so differently.

Italian director Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea [+see also:
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]
won for Best First Film, adding Best Actor (Koudous Seihon) and the Telia Film Award, and Hungarian director László Nemes was named Best Director for Son of Saul [+see also:
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Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
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]
. This year, festival director Git Scheynius introduced the Stockholm Impact Award, a prize designed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, which comes with SEK 1 million (€107,000) and was given to Indian director Leena Yadav (Parched).

Best Script was nabbed by Mustang [+see also:
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]
, written by the film’s Turkish director, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, and Alice Winocour, and centring on a scandal in a small village caused by five sisters. Meanwhile, Best Cinematography was bestowed upon French cinematographer Manuel Dacosse, for French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution [+see also:
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, “a hauntingly beautiful universe distilled through the lens of a master”.

Best Actress went to Lithuania’s Julija Steponaityte, “an actress who illuminates the screen with her absolute presence”, for Alanté Kavaïté’s The Summer of Sangaile [+see also:
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interview: Alanté Kavaïté
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]
. Best Documentary was Behemoth [+see also:
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by Chinese director Zhao Liang, which “unveils hell right here on earth in a beautiful, emotive and poetic way – pure and utterly necessary”, and A Few Seconds by French director Nora El Hourch was voted as Best Short; it follows five young women living at a rehabilitation centre in Paris, trying to overcome memories of violence and abuse.

The Stockholm Rising Star was Swedish actress Aliette Opheim, “who inhabits a deep sensibility as well as an immense power, and who delves into diverse roles with great courage and integrity”. 

The 1 Km Film Scholarship was given to Swedish director Victor Lindgren for I Turn to You, and the iFestival Award (voted for by the audience) fell to Venezuelan director Adrian Geyer’s Tisure. The FIPRESCI Award for Best Film went to Macadam Stories [+see also:
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by French director Samuel Benchetrit, “an insightful, melancholic and tender comedy filled with quirky, deadpan humour”. 

Finally, as for the special awards,besides the new Stockholm Impact Award mentioned above, the Stockholm Achievement Award went to US actress Ellen Burstyn, the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award to British director Stephen Frears and the Stockholm Visionary Award to Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.

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