23/06/2005

The Danish director Rumle Hammerich has just been voted Best Director at the 8th Shanghai International Film Festival (11-19 June), the biggest film festival in China for his film Young Andersen.
The film beat other European contenders such as the French Just Friends by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, The Father by Maurice Barthelemy, the Italian Now & Forever by Vincenzo Verdecchi, and the Finnish Shades of Happiness by Claes Olsson.
The 6 members of the jury of the ‘Jin Jue Award’ which included the director Regis Wargnier (France), Imanol Uribe (Spain), and Marc Rothemund (Germany) made the following comment on Hammerich: "The director’s work covers all the aspects of the film, from lighting to costumes, from set dressing to editing. He is the soul of a symphony orchestra himself. Mr Rumle Hammerich has done all that in an almost perfect way."

Hammerich made his feature film debut in 1983 with Otto Is a Rhino considered one of the best Danish children’s films of the decade, then the Swedish film The Premonition (Sort Lucia) in 1992. He then left filmmaking for several years to run the production department at Nordisk Film and came back to his true passion with Young Andersen, a portrait of the famous Danish writer/poet Hans Christian Andersen during his most formative years. The Danish film co-produced by Nordisk Film and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation is their contribution to the international celebration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth this year. The Danish theatrical premiere took place last March and international sales are handled by Nordisk Film International Sales.