24/09/2025 - The very best in Nordic shorts and documentaries have received an even spread of awards across Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden

It’s been said more than once that the Nordic Documentary competition at the Nordisk Panorama festival in Malmö, Sweden, is especially “tough”, as the chosen dozen are among the strongest, most accomplished and simply the very best documentaries of the current season, hailing from the Nordic region. Denmark, represented by three titles (including a Greenlandic entry), got the top prize this year when Only on Earth [+see also:
interview: Robin Petré
interview: Robin Petré
film profile] became the jury’s final choice. This Danish-Spanish co-production is the second documentary, after the equally ecologically themed From the Wild Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Petré
film profile], by artist-filmmaker Robin Petré. Only on Earth world-premiered at Berlin and explores the interaction between humans, animals and nature in Southern Galicia, where wild horses have helped prevent fires in this dry land by curbing flammable undergrowth. These days, their number is steadily declining, and the natural balance risks being disrupted. The award includes a cash prize of €11,000, sponsored by Nordic public broadcasters DR, NRK, RÚV, SVT and YLE.

Three cherished shorts also took spots on the prize podium. The Best Short Award was presented to O by Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson, which, after its Venice bow, has reaped a healthy batch of accolades, thanks in no small part to a memorable main performance by Ingvar Sigurdsson (Godland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile]). The New Nordic Voice Award, for “promising Nordic filmmakers whose works are among their first releases or filmmakers who have shifted their filmmaking format”, went to the highly original charcoal-and-ink animation Pay Day by Finland’s Päivi Hirsiaho. The Young Nordic Award, chosen by “our most critical viewers” – ie, the junior part of the audience – was Norway’s Poor Me by Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad, who won the national Norwegian Amanda for her previous short, My Sister. And to make the spread perfectly even among all five Nordic countries, the Swedish-majority production Yalla Parkour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Palestinian director Areeb Zuaiter snagged the City of Malmö’s Audience Award.

A Best Nordic Documentary Producer Award has been given out since 2023 in collaboration with the Danish Producers’ Association, Virke Norwegian Producers Association, Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI), the Finnish Documentary Guild, Filmproducenternas Rättighetsförening (FRF) and the Icelandic Filmmakers Association, each of which nominates a national candidate. The 2025 winner is Hanna Björk Valsdóttir, from Iceland, whose CV includes Dreamland, Dive: Rituals in Water, Bogancloch [+see also:
film review
interview: Ben Rivers
film profile] and The Ground Beneath Our Feet [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and who has run the production company Akkeri since 2015.

Since 1990, Nordisk Panorama has screened a selection of the best Nordic short films and documentaries in its competitions and special programmes, and also organises a range of industry events, including the elaborate Nordisk Panorama Forum, with two days of work-in-progress project presentations in front of an expert panel of broadcasters, decision makers, backers, buyers, co-producers and distributors, whose interest in and attendance at this event is steadily growing by the year.

Further information about the event and its winners can be found here.

Here is the list of award winners at this year’s Nordisk Panorama:

Best Nordic Documentary
Only on Earth [+see also:
interview: Robin Petré
interview: Robin Petré
film profile] – Robin Petré (Denmark/Spain)
Honourable Mention
Teenage Life Interrupted [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Åse Svenheim Drivenes (Norway)

Best Nordic Short
O – Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland/Sweden, short film)
Honourable Mention
I Felt I Had to Be Here - Sara Selmer Moland (Norway, short film)

New Nordic Voice
Pay Day – Päivi Hirsiaho (Finland, short film)

City of Malmö’s Audience Award
Yalla Parkour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Areeb Zuaiter (Sweden/Palestine/Quatar/Saudi Arabia)

Young Nordic Award
Poor Me - Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad (Norway, short film)

Nordic Documentary Producer Award
Hanna Björk Valsdóttir