3 awards in Beijing

Danish films brought home three Tiatan Awards from the closing ceremony at the Beijing International Film Festival on Saturday evening. Christina Rosendahl won the Best Director award for her political thriller "The Idealist." Martin Zandvliet's historical drama "Land of Mine" was honoured with awards: The young German actor Louis Hofmann won for Best Actor, and composer Sune Martin received the award for Best Music.

The two films were selected for the competition as the first Danish films in the festival's six-year history. Seven Danish films screened at the festival, which for the second year had invited a large delegation of Danish filmmakers for a Danish film focus. Read more: Seven Danish Films to Beijing

Read about all the winners at the festival's site

"The Idealist" is produced by Jonas Frederiksen, Signe Leick Jensen and Ane Mandrup for Toolbox Film and sold to Chinese distribution by LevelK. "Land of Mine" is produced by Mikael Rieks for Nordisk Film Production.

"Land of Mine" producer Mikael Rieks and actor Roland Møller at a Q&A session. Photo: Noemi Ferrer Schwenk

The Idealist

Christina Rosendahl, 2015

January 21st, 1968 – An American B-52 bomber carrying nuclear warheads has just crashed on the polar ice near the US military Air Base in Danish controlled Thule, Greenland. A few days later, responsible governments classify the crash as a Broken Arrow scenario (nuclear accident) but proclaim the situation to be under control. Hundreds of Thule workers are set to work, helping in the gigantic clean-up operation.

Land of Mine

Martin Zandvliet, 2015

Taking place in May 1945 only a few days after the end of the war, the film tells the story of how a group of German prisoners of war were brought to Denmark and forced to disarm the two million land mines that had been scattered along the West Coast by the German occupying forces. In charge of the enfeebled young men performing the dangerous task is Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen. Like so many of his fellow Danes, he has a deep hatred for the Germans after having suffered five years of hardships during the occupation.

Christina Rosendahl

Director. Born 5/1 1971, Denmark.

Studied Comparative Literary History and Film and Media Studies at the University of Copenhagen and spent a time at the European Film College and the New York Film Academy before graduating from the alternative film School Super16 in 2002.

Louis Hofmann

Sune Martin