Göteborg Film Festival crowns Danish films with prestigious awards

Danish films shone at this year's Göteborg Film Festival, with two films winning the Dragon Awards for Best Nordic Film and Best Nordic Documentary. In addition, 'Copenhagen does not exist' won in the cinematography category. This is the second year running that Danish productions have taken home the festival's top honors.

The Göteborg Film Festival was a triumph for Malou Reyman's 'Unruly.' The historical drama, based on a true story of a women's institution in 1930s Denmark, won the award for Best Nordic Film, and premiered to great acclaim in the Nordic region. Written by Reyman and Sara Isabella Jønsson, and produced by Nordisk Film, 'Unruly' solidifies Reyman's position as a top talent after her successful debut with 'A Perfectly Normal Family' (2020).

Danish filmmaker Lea Glob's 'Apolonia, Apolonia' was recognized for its excellence at the Göteborg Film Festival, taking home the prize for Best Nordic Documentary. The film, which was shot over a span of 13 years, offers a thought-provoking journey into the minds of three women as they come of age and reconsider their beliefs about sexuality, art, idealism, and love. It received widespread recognition after its world premiere at IDFA Amsterdam, where it won Best Film. Lea Glob graduated from the Documentary programme at the National Film School of Denmark in 2011. 'Apolonia, Apolonia' is produced by Sidsel Lønvig Siersted for Danish Documentary Production."

Read more:

'Apolonia, Apolonia' wins at IDFA

"Copenhagen does not exist" made its mark by receiving the prestigious Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award. The film's director of photography, Jacob Møller, was recognized for his exceptional work. Møller's recent credits include "Shorta" (2020) and "The Purity of Vengeance" (2018). The recognition at Göteborg Film Festival adds to the celebration of the film's world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this week.

Unruly

Malou Reymann, 2023

MAREN, a strongminded young woman, is seen by authorities to be promiscuous and is therefore sent to the women’s institution in the small island of Sprogø. Here she is to learn how to behave as a proper young woman. She has to share a room with SØRINE who has already internalised the story about herself and has learned to behave properly.

Apolonia, Apolonia

Lea Glob, 2022

When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater group in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe.

Copenhagen Does Not Exist

Martin Skovbjerg, 2023

A young woman has disappeared without a trace. Three months later her boyfriend agrees to an unusual arrangement: to be locked in an apartment and interrogated by the woman’s father.
It soon becomes obvious that even long before her disappearance, the two lovers had chosen a strange and unconventional life: cut off from the world, isolated in the middle of the big city.