02/02/2015 - Danish director Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm's drama has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film and the FIPRESCI Prize

Danish director Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm's first feature film, In Your Arms [+see also:
film review
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interview: Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm
film profile], is the big winner at the 38th Göteborg International Film Festival (23 January-2 February), having scooped the main Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, worth €107,000 (SEK 1 million), and the FIPRESCI Prize.

The drama about euthanasia, co-produced by Denmark's Meta Film and Germany's Tamtam Film, world-premiered at Scandinavia's biggest film event.

The main jury consisted of actress Maryam Moghaddam, and directors Pernille Fischer Christensen, Pirjo Honkasalo, Anja Breien and Benedikt Erlingsson, and also gave out the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award to Pietari Peltola for his work on the Finnish-Dutch co-production They Have Escaped [+see also:
film review
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interview: J-P Valkeapää
film profile], directed by J-P Valkeapää. 

The FIPRESCI Jury included Ulrich Wimmeroth, Yesim Tabak and Luuk Imhann.  

The Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary was given to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence [+see also:
film review
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film profile], by a jury consisting of Ossama Mohammed (director), Linde Frölich (artistic director at Nordic Film Days Lübeck), Jacob Lundström (film critic and journalist) and Gabriela Pichler (director).  

The Lesson [+see also:
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interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
film profile] by Bulgaria's Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva received the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award, which was judged by directors Naomi Kawase and Gust Van den Berghe, and Mads Mikkelsen (programmer at CPH:DOX).  

The audience favourites were My Skinny Sister [+see also:
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interview: Sanna Lenken
film profile] by Sweden's Sanna Lenken in the Nordic competition, and In the Crosswind [+see also:
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interview: Martti Helde
interview: Martti Helde
film profile] by Estonia's Martti Helde, having been chosen from all the feature films screened at the festival. 

Previously, at the opening ceremony on 23 January, the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award was presented to Liv Ullmann, while producer Marie Kjellson accepted the City of Gothenburg Award for Ruben Ostlund's Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile].

This year’s winner of Best Swedish Short was John Skoog for Redoubt, and the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film went to Amanda Kernell for Northern Great Mountain. The short film awards were handed out at the Best Swedish Short gala on 25 January.

The Swedish Church’s Angelos Award went to Every Face Has a Name, directed by Magnus Gertten, and was handed out at the film’s world premiere on Wednesday 29 January.

The Mai Zetterling scholarship, comprising a prize to the tune of €21,393 (SEK 200,000), went to Måns Månsson and was also handed out at the festival’s opening ceremony.

Lastly, the DORIS Award, a yearly prize that goes to either a man or a woman who has promoted gender equality in the film industry, was bestowed upon documentary producer Stina Gardell at a screening on Saturday.