"Out Stealing Horses" wins Norway's Top Film Prizes

by Nathaniel R

Out Stealing Horses

You may recall that when we posted our April Foolish Oscar predictions we suggested that the Norwegian film Out Stealing Horses could well compete for the Best International Film Oscar. That was a blind call based solely on its pedigree (a lush adaptation of a best-seller with a known director) since a) we hadn't seen the picture, b) Norway hadn't submitted it, and c) there weren't many industry reactions yet. Those things are still true save the latter which is now emphatically untrue. It's obviously well liked since it just took the top prize at Norway's annual Amanda Awards. Early critical reaction via Berlinale in February was also positive. 

More about the Amanda Awards and that film after the jump...

Best Norwegian Film in Theatrical Release

• Harajuku
• Out Stealing Horses ★
• The Quake

Harajuku is about a teenager whose mother gets into an accident and she has to contact her father who she does not have a relationship with. (The title comes from the fact that she wants to run away to Tokyo). The Quake is an earthquake thriller (the marketing campaign compared it directly to the Norwegian action-thriller hit The Wave. Interestingly enough the director of The Quake has spent most of his career as a cinematographer and he shot The Congo Murders which was up for several Amanda Awards as well though not Best Film.

The winner, Out Stealing Horses, is set in two time frames. The latter time frame  involves a widower (Stellan Skarsgård) and a chance encounter and the earlier time frame is his youth during the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II.The movie is from Hans Petter Moland who previously directed Stellan Skarsgârd in A Somewhat Gentleman, In Order of Disappearance, and Aberdeen. 

Best Children’s Film

• Psychobitch ★

Children's film in Europe and Scandinavia are generally much more sophisticated than American "children's films". It also won the screenplay award for its director Martin Lund 

Best Director

• Magnus Meyer Arnesen, As I Fall
• Eirik Svensson, Harajuku
• Hans Petter Moland, Out Stealing Horses ★

Best Actress

• Ines Høysæter Asserson, Harajuku
• Pia Tjelta for Blind Spot ★
• Ine Marie Wilmann, The White Swan

Blind Spot, a drama about mental illness, was shortlisted for Norway's Oscar submission last season but wasn't sent. The White Swan is that biopic about the ice-skater and movie star Sonja Henie that we mentioned years ago before they actually made it. 

Best Actor

Best Actor rivals Tobias Santelmann and Jon Ranes play father and son in Out Stealing Horses

• Preben Hodneland, As I Fall
• Jon Ranes, Out Stealing Horses
• Tobias Santelmann for The Congo Murders ★

Jon Ranes is a teenage actor and plays the young version of Stellan Skarsgard during the World War II era scenes. The winner Tobias Santelmann you might remember purely from his utter deliciousness as the hottest man on the raft in Norway's Oscar nominee Kon-Tiki or from his regular role in the TV series The Last Kingdom. Funnily enough he also plays the father to Best Actor rival Jon Ranes, right here, in Out Stealing Horses.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bonnevie in Phoenix

• Maria Bonnevie for Phoenix ★
• Alexandra Gjerpen, As I Fall
• Anneke von der Lippe, An Affair 

Bonnevie is a critical darling /  star in Norway and plays a mentally unstable but loving mother in this family drama. This is her second win from five nominations.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Elder Skar (laughing) with Ine Marie Willamson as Sonja Henie in "The White Swan"

• Nicolai Cleve Broch, Harajuku
• Bjørn Floberg, Out Stealing Horses ★
• Elder Skar, The White Swan

Out Stealing Horses reunites Floberg with Skarsgård. He plays his neighbor in the drama (who he also knew as a child in flashbacks, though they're played by younger actors then of course). Floberg and Skarsgård were co-stars in the Norwegian hit Insomnia, which was of course remade in English by Christopher Nolan (but we like the original better). 

Best Screenplay

• Harajuku
• Out Stealing Horses
• Psychobitch ★

Best Cinematography

• Harajaku
• Out Stealing Horses ★
• The Congo Murders

Best Production Design

• Amundsen
• The Quake
• The White Swan ★

Best Visual Effects

• Amundsen
• Out Stealing Horses
• The Quake ★

Best Score

• As I Fall
• Harajaku
• Out Stealing Horses

Best Editing

Harajuku

• Harajuku ★
• Out Stealing Horses
• The Quake

Best Sound Design

• The Congo Murders
• Harajuku ★
• Out Stealing Horses

Best Short Film

• The Culture
• She-Pack ★

Best Documentary

• Born2Drive
• The Men's Room
• Where Man Returns ★

Best Foreign Film in Theatrical Release

• Capernaum (Lebanon) ★
• Green Book (USA)
• The Guilty (Denmark)
• Shoplifters (Japan)

This is quite a coup for Capernaum, such a good film. We're pleased it did so well last year everywhere.

The People’s Amanda

• The Quake ★

The Amanda Committee’s Golden Clapper

• Philip Øgaard, cinematographer

The Amanda Committee Honorary Award

• Petter Vennerød, director and producer

Finally, we should note that Norway doesn't send the Amanda winner even 50% of the time. Of their past 20 submissions only 7 were Amanda winners. So there's still a chance they dont send Out Stealing Horses, but we think in this case that they will. 

Comments

[ca]

Regarding the Best Foreign Language/International Film Oscar, I'm not sure if you already know, but Portugal has four finalists.
They are "Variações", a biopic of a queer singer who achieved improbable success in the 1980s and died young; "Raiva", an historical drama about class injustice, it's very austere, western-like and in brilliant black & white; "A Herdade", which is competing in Venice and directed by a respected theatre director that, this year, has already shown another feature at Lisbon's independent film festival to great acclaim; and finally "Diamantino", which I think you have already heard of.

One of them will be Portugal's submission for the Oscar.

[par]

jon ranes? has the stellan skarsgard actor factory gone out of business?

[NATHANIEL R]

par -- apparently yes. i guess all his sons were too old for this one.