More than 670,000 Danish moviegoers have watched Mads Mikkelsen tackle the challenging role as a kindergarten teacher who finds himself the victim of a witch hunt, a role that named Mikkelsen Best Actor at the Cannes festival in 2012.
Now Thomas Vinterberg's drama, which has sold to more than 30 countries, is up for one of the finest Nordic awards as the Danish nominee for the Nordic Council Film Prize.
The Danish jury, consisting of film critics Per Juul Carlsen, Jakob Wendt Jensen and Eva Novrup Redvall, states in its motivation that the director performs a delicate balance in "The Hunt": "The story is a highly entertaining drama while dealing with difficult subjects in such a way that the audience cannot but reflect: modern witch hunt, guilt and innocence, trust and forgiveness, and the loss of innocence in an overprotecting world."
Thomas Vinterberg wrote the script with Tobias Lindholm ("Borgen", "A Hijacking"), and producers are Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Morgen Kaufmann for Zentropa. In 2010, the trio Vinterberg-Lindholm-Kaufmann won the Nordic Council Film Prize with "Submarino".
"The Hunt" will be competing with "Open Up To Me" (dir. Simo Halinen, Finland), "The Deep" (dir. Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland), "I Belong" (dir. Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway), and "Eat Sleep Die" (dir. Gabriela Pichler, Sweden).
About the Nordic Council Film Prize
The Nordic Council Film Prize is awarded to a feature film rooted in Nordic culture. The prize is shared between the film's director, scriptwriter and producer, underlining the fact that film as an art form is the result of a close collaboration between these three main functions.
The prize will be presented in conjunction with the Nordic Council's Fall Session on 30 October in Oslo. The honour is accompanied by a cash prize of DKK 350,000 (47,000 euro).
The Nordic Council Film Prize, administered by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, was introduced in 2002. The Danish member of the jury for the 2013-prize is film critic Per Juul Carlsen.
Last year's winner was Sweden's "Play" by Ruben Östlund.
Read press release from Nordisk Film & TV Fond
See promotion clip by Nordisk Film & TV Fond:
The Hunt
The 40-year-old divorced father, Lucas, is just about to be reunited with his son when he is accused of a crime he did not commit; and now a witch hunt starts in a small surburban town in Denmark. How long will he be able to endure it when his friends and his girlfriend also begins to doubt his innocence..