05/11/2002 - 44th Nordic Days is a hit and winners include Holst, Biers, Kaurismaki and Jensen

The 44th edition of Nordic Days in Luebeck in Germany were a success. The 4-day event that ended last weekend received 18,400 visitors, 1,400 more than last year’s edition.
The NDR award that was set up in 1990 and which traditionally goes to a fiction film with outstanding artistic merits - together with Euros 12,500 - was won by Norwegian Marius Holst for Oyenstikker (The Dragonfly). This film failed to generate much interest when it was released domestically although it won awards at several international film events.
Sweden’s Marcello und Fatima by Ulf Malmros won the Children’s and Young People’s Film Award presented by the Norwegian Film Institute. Marcello und Fatima also won the German Video Industry award and Euros 5000.
The Baltic Film Award, that includes an invitation to the Riga Film Festival, went to Denmark’s Susanne Biers for Open Hearts while fellow Dane Thomas Villum Jensen’s My Sister’s Children in the Snow won the best children’s film award.
Iceland’s foreign film Oscar candidate, Seagulls’ Laughter by Agust Gudmundsson, won the Church Award. Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki won the Luebeck Audience Award and Euros 2500 for his The Man Without a Past while fellow Finn, Ulrika Bengt, won the IG Metal Award for her documentary about mentally handicapped people entitled Now You Are Hamlet.