12/04/2012 - And Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer returned to the screen at the launch of CPH PIX 2012 - the fourth Copenhagen International Film Festival

Danish-Palestinian director Omar Shargawi (pictured) last night received Denmark’s largest film award for new talent – the Nordisk Film Prize – accompanied by a cheque for around €14,000.

The presentation took place at the opening of CPH PIX 2012 – the fourth Copenhagen International Film Festival - at Copenhagen’s Dagmar Teatret, where Nordisk's Prize Committee Chairman Thomas Heinesen said: “Shargawi has no film background - perhaps that is why he ignores conventions. His films are both modern and classic, with simple and universal themes.”

Born and raised in Copenhagen, the self-taught director, who started as a photographer, made his feature debut with Go With Peace Jamil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Meta Louise Foldager
interview: Omar Shargawi
film profile] (2008), which won – among others - the VRPO Tiger Award in Rotterdam. After My Father from Haifa (2009), he signed 1/2 Revolution (2011), depicting his own and Karim El Hakim’s experiences during the Egyptian uprising downtown Cairo near the Tahrir Square. The documentary was selected for Sundance.

At the CPH PIX 2012 launch, Australian-British actor, director and choreographer Stuart Lynch had his world premiere of Dreyer, the Tyrannical Dane, a film and theatre show commissioned by the festival, starring Norwegian-Danish actor Baard Owe, who also played in Dreyer’s last film, Gertrud (1964).

After today’s opening film, Finnish director Timo Vuorensola’s dark sci-fi comedy, Iron Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tero Kaukomaa
interview: Timo Vuorensola
interview: Timo Vuorensola
film profile], introduced by Vuorensola and producer Tero Kaukoma, festival director Jacob Neiiendam has scheduled 158 movies in 25 series, adding concerts and performances, seminars and debates, industry events for the programme, which runs until April 29.