04/09/2015 - Roar Uthaug’s film has made it from the shortlist to the submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-language Film

Norwegian director Roar Uthaug’s The Wave [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Roar Uthaug
film profile] has reached local cinemas, registering 141,981 admissions during its opening weekend, although Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s Kon-Tiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] still holds the record for a domestic film, with 165,222 tickets sold. Meanwhile, the Norwegian Oscar committee has decided to submit Uthaug’s movie for the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign-language Film.

“The Wave is Norway's – and the Nordic countries’ – first disaster movie; as a genre film with a well-written script, superbly directed, with great acting performances, the committee believes that it will make a strong impression in the Oscar race,” said the chairman of the committee, Sindre Guldvog, managing director of the Norwegian Film Institute.

The committee made its final choice from its own shortlist, which also included Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s Returning Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Å vende tilbake) and Anne Sewitsky’s Homesick [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ine Marie Wilmann
film profile]. The eight members had considered a total of 21 Norwegian productions premiered between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2015.

The film is based on a real-life disaster – the 7 April 1934 tsunami in Norway’s Tafjord, which left 40 people dead – and geology experts are convinced it could happen again. While Uthaug thinks it is about time Norway produced a real disaster movie, he has also given their predictions some serious consideration. “It means treating the subject with more respect than if it had been purely fictional,” he explained. 

After opening the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund (16 August) and being released in Norway, The Wave will next have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (10-20 September).