Swedish director Ronnie Sandahl’s feature debut, Underdog [+lee también:
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“A modern take on class conflict that keeps its focus on its believable characters instead of highlighting the melodrama inherent in its narrative – a film that both addresses specific cultural issues and yet feels simultaneously universal through its honesty,” said the jury of Sandahl’s first movie, which follows a Swede who has fled Swedish mass unemployment for a new life in Oslo. Like many young Swedish immigrants, she ends up being an outcast and survives on very little money, irregular work and partying hard, until she lands a job as a housekeeper in an upper-middle-class Norwegian house – a life very distant from her own.

Earlier this month (5 October), the film – also starring Bianca Kronlöf, Mona Kristiansen and Naomi Emeilie Christensen Beck – was awarded the Critics’ Award for Best Film Debut at the tenth Zurich Film Festival, with a Special Mention for Kronlöf and Kristiansen. Underdog was produced by Annika Hellström and Martin Persson for Sweden’s Anagram Film & TV and Cinenic Film, and by Gudny Hummelvoll for Norway’s Hummelfilm. 

Incorporating a focus on Scandinavia in the World Cinema Spotlight Program, with 20 features and eight shorts, Chicago also awarded a Gold Hugo for Best Short Film to Norwegian director Marianne O Ulrichsen’s Amazon, and a Silver Hugo to John Christian Rosenlund for his cinematography for Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams [+lee también:
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The Silver Q Hugo Film Award in the OUT-Look Program went to Swedish director Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]; a Gold Plaque was issued for Best Costume Design to Pia Myrdal and Anne-Dorthe Eskildsen, for Danish director Niels Arden Oplev’s Speed Walking, and lastly, Icelandic director Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson was awarded the Gold Plaque for Best Narrative/Live Action Short for his Artun.