31/10/2013 - Now running for an Oscar nomination, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg became the first filmmaker to take home the Nordic Council Film Prize for the second time

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] has been in the habit of receiving prizes, since it was launched at last year’s Cannes International Film Festival, where it collected three awards – and last night (October 30) Vinterberg became the first filmmaker to take home the Nordic Council Film Prize for the second time at the awards ceremony in the Oslo Opera House, which was televised in all of Scandinavia.

Currently filming on location, the director was not himself present when the trophy with a €47,000 cheque was given to co-writer Tobias Lindholm and producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Morten Kaufmann by last year’s winner, Swedish director Ruben Östlund. Lindholm and Kaufmann were also on Vinterberg’s team when his Submarino [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] won in 2010.

“In Vinterberg’s film a man is wrongfully accused of child abuse. At first glance it is a straightforward tale that could have been told in ancient Greece as well as in Hollywood. But beneath the seemingly simple surface lie many complex themes, forcing the audience to discuss and analyse what they see. Through the allegory of 'the hunt', the film explores how the individual can be persecuted even in a well-meaning and well-functioning society, when it suddenly turns on one of its own. This remarkable story is carried by Mads Mikkelsen’s powerful performance, the striking score and haunting and beautiful imagery,” said the jury.

Produced by Zentropa Entertainments, The Hunt tells the story of a 40-year-old man (Mikkelsen) in a small provincial town, who has finally recovered from a tough divorce, when a five-year-old kindergartener drops a remark accusing him of abusing her. The cast includes Susse Wold, Thomas Bo Larsen and Lars Ranthe.

Mikkelsen won for Best Actor in Cannes, and the film has since received, ao, the European Film Award for Best Screenwriters (Vinterberg-Lindholm) and the British Independent Film Award for Best International Film. Denmark’s TrustNordisk has sold it to 103 territories, and when released in Denmark six months after Cannes, it became this year’s so far best-grossing local film with 672,000 admissions.