There were Danish honors on Saturday night in Gothenburg, where the Göteborg Film Festival's annual Dragon Awards took place. Nikolaj Arcel's critically acclaimed drama 'The Promised Land' won two awards at the festival. The film won both the FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics with the following motivation:
Effectively narrating a tough story from a challenging period, this film features a captivating plot, strong characters, elaborate setting, excellent camera work, and skillful acting, delivering intricate cinematic experience.
Further, 'The Promised Land' won the Audience Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film while the Danish minor co-production 'Mother, Couch' by Niclas Larsson won the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
'The Promised Land' has been selected for several prominent festivals, including Venice, Telluride and Toronto, and in December 2023, the film won three awards at the European Film Awards and was Oscar-shortlisted in the International Feature Film category. The film is based on Ida Jessen's novel 'The Captain and Ann Barbara', and director Nikolaj Arcel co-wrote the screenplay with Anders Thomas Jensen. Louise Vesth produced the film for Zentropa with support from the Danish Film Institute.
Sidse Babett Knudsen received the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award
Sidse Babett Knudsen receiving the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award. Photo: Scandinavian Film Festival.
Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen (b. 1968) has starred in many prominent Danish films the last 30 years, such as 'Let's Get Lost', ‘The One and Only’, ‘After the wedding’ and the series 'Borgen' as well as in several international productions such as 'The Duke of Burgundy' and the HBO series 'Westworld'. This year she receives the Göteborg Film Festival's Nordic Honorary Dragon Award - with screenings of 'After the wedding’ and 'Wildland' - with the following motivation from the festival:
“Sidse Babett Knudsen has revolutionized Danish comedy and formulated her own point of reference in the international political debate. She has demonstrated her stylishness and artistic and linguistic versatility in films and series such as’ After the Wedding’, ‘Club Zero’, ‘Westworld’, ‘The Duke of Burgundy’ and ’150 Milligrams’. But the centerpiece of her oeuvre is still ‘Borgen’, where she has almost defined what acting is in modern Nordic TV drama.”