The Nordisk Panorama 2023 winners were unveiled September 26 at Malmö City Hall. The prize recipients are:
Best Nordic Documentary: presented to one of the 15 films selected for the Competition. The cash award of 11.000 € is sponsored by Nordic public broadcasters DR, NRK, RUV, SVT and YLE. The cash award of €11,000 € is sponsored by Nordic public broadcasters DR, NRK, RUV, SVT and YLE.
- Apolonia, Apolonia by Lea Glob. 116 mins, Denmark, 2022. Jury citation: “For the best Nordic doc, we wanted to celebrate an exceptional movie that leans on one of the most precious documentary filmmaking resources: the use of time. It is an adorable movie, about life-long friendship, about the sacrifices you have to make to express yourself in arts, and about dreams and plans that you stick to, wherever life takes you. The competition was full of surprises and really good filmmaking and movies, we ultimately singled out the one that will stay with us the longest, and this is the one that features a huge butt plug.”
- Honourable Mention: Hypermoon by Mia Engberg. 78 mins, Sweden, 2023. Jury citation: “A very special film that had a huge personal impact. It was a film that for some of us, when it started, felt too close to the bone, but it left us feeling warm and energised. It was a powerful visualisation of feelings many of us not just dread, but struggle to face up to. A lesson in tackling some of life’s most difficult challenges.”
New Nordic Voice: the jury decided to split the cash award of €5,000, given to promising Nordic filmmakers and sponsored by AVEK and Film i Skåne, between a documentary and a short film.
- Under Construction by Markus Toivo. 61 mins, Finland, 2023. Jury citation: “Magnificently cinematic and poetic, this film opens the gate, both physical and metaphorical, on the silence and loneliness that endures between fathers and sons. At times so painful, and at others laugh out loud joyous. Markus Toivo gently leads us through themes around masculinity, inter-generational trauma and the limitations of patriarchy in his brilliant film.”
- Prelude by Arman Zafari, 19 mins, Finland, 2023. Jury citation: “In a mere 19 minutes this fiction short made us jurors look deep within ourselves and what it means to strive for perfection. Perhaps it takes a young filmmaker to probe taboos around middle class motherhood. Fine lead performances in this beautifully structured film makes Arman Zafari’s Prelude an exciting new Nordic voice.”
Nordic Documentary Producer Award: the new prize, valued at €10,000, was created to acknowledge the invaluable role of the producer within documentary filmmaking.
- Stina Gardell, Sweden. Gardell is one of Sweden’s most meritorious documentary filmmakers, educated at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, and with her own Stockholm-based company Mantaray Film as a base for a solid production of award-winning documentary films. Stina has produced 28 feature documentaries and co-produced 9, and has received a number of prestigious film awards e.g. Guldbaggen, Kristallen, Ikaros and Silverfjärilen. Jury citation: “With unique determination, tenacity and assurance, Stina Gardell has developed world class Swedish documentaries for years. With consistent artistic vision and penchant for tuning into what the audiences are interested in, she has created a strong signature brand. Stina has contributed immensely to the Swedish documentary field with films like I am Ingrid, The World’s Most Beautiful Boy and The Nun.”
City of Malmö Audience Award: the cash prize of €2.500 is sponsored by the City of Malmö.
- The Home Game by Smari Gunnarsson & Logi Sigursveinsson. 79 mins, Iceland, 2023. Synopsis: An impulsive Icelander wants to fulfil his father’s failed dream: to get their beloved fishing village a home game on the unused football pitch he built. A team of underdogs registers for a prestigious men’s tournament. The team includes a fisherman and his son, a church warden – and a mother of three. But when her inclusion threatens to disqualify them, a sequence of events produces an unlikely female hero.
Best Nordic Short Film: The cash award of €5.000 is sponsored by the association of Danish Film Directors and the Swedish Film Directors.
- Norwegian Offspring by Marlene Emilie Lyngstad. 45 mins, Denmark, 2023. Jury citation: “For a film that really unsettled us and stayed in our minds, creating much discussion between us about masculinity, outsider ideologies, lack of connection and warped intimacy, involving a very problematic, fascinating and well-acted protagonist. Well-shot and paced, this film didn’t make us notice its long running time.”
Young Nordic Award: The cash award of 1.500 € is sponsored by Nordisk Panorama Film Festival and ix awarded in honour of BUFF, the International Children and Young People’s Film Festival in Malmö, as a celebration of their 40-year anniversary.
- Brouillarta by Ingvild Søderlind. 15 mins, Norway, 2023. Synopsis: Elliot, a ten-year-old Norwegian, is spending summer with his grandparents in the Basque country in France. He struggles to fit in and feels different from his sharp-witted French cousins. In a mystical village amid brutal landscape, his anxiety grows. And who is Brouillarta?
