Amanda Nominations: The Ugly Stepsister, Armand, and more...

by Nathaniel R

The Ugly Stepsister -- now streaming on AMC+ and Shudder

Norway's annual Amanda Awards take place in August each year in beautiful Haugesund on the west coast. I lived there briefly a million years ago. Their eligibility is not by calendar year but for Norwegian release dates between July 1 through June 30. This often means that you'll see last year's Oscar submission in the mix along with newer titles. You'll recognize some of the titles this year and a few of them are even available to see in the US by streaming or at the theater.

Nominations and thoughts after the jump...

BEST FILM

ARMAND

• ARMAND - currently streaming on AMC+ 
• DREAMS  - limited release in the US this summer
• ELSKLING 

Armand was, of course, Norway's Oscar submission last year. It made the shortlist (and nearly my own top ten list) but failed to snag an Oscar nomination.  Dreams won the Golden Bear at Berlinale earlier this year so we suspect it'll take the Amanda, too. Elskling is apparently going by Loveable internationally...though that's an odd translation, as the real title is a term of endearment rather than an adjective. The drama is about a marriage that's crumbling.

If Norway surprises later this year and doesn't submit Cannes hit Sentimental Value for the Oscars, they have a lot of other films to choose from already (they're having a strong year!) including  Love, Dreams, Number 24, Elskling, and The Ugly Stepsister.

BEST DIRECTOR

• Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel - ARMAND
• Dag Johan Haugerun - DREAMS
• Lila Ingolfsdottir - ELSKLING

Dag Johan Haugerun's talky provocative Oslo trilogy (Love, Sex, Dreams) -- not to be confused with the much more famous / earlier 'Oslo trilogy' by Joachim Trier which consisted of Reprise (2006), Oslo August 31 (2011) and Worst Person in the World (2021)-- has been winning great reviews and is sure to collect more international fans as the year plays out. Love is about to leave theaters here in NYC and Sex just opened (Dreams arrives later this summer). Can't wait to see Sex & Dreams since Love was super and I've been thinking about it often even a month after seeing it. 

The trilogy isn't connected by characters or plot and you don't have to see them in any particular order -- neverthless they're coming to the US in a slightly different order. Sex was the first to arrive in Norway (and lost the Oscar submission last year to Armand), and was followed by Love and Dreams (both of which are theoretically eligible to be Norway's submission for the 98th Academy Awards) 

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

DREAMS

• Helga Guren - ELSKLING
• Renata Reinsve - ARMAND 
• Andrea Bræin Hovig - LOVE
• Ella Øverbye -DREAMS 
• Gard B Eidsvold - QUISLING: THE FINAL DAYS - streaming on Roku or rentable online

Andrea Bræin Hovig is authentic, curious, and just lovely as a urologist considering dating and casual sex in Love which recently played here in NYC. Meanwhile Renata Reinsve continues to be a total genius. She previously won the Amanda for Worst Person in the World. I have yet to see the other performances. 

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE 

Ane Dahl Torp & Lea Myren (both nominated) in THE UGLY STEPSISTER

• Ellen Dorrit Peterson - ARMAND
• Thea Lambrechts Valuen - ARMAND
• Oddgeir Thune - ELSKLING
• Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen - LOVE
• Ane Dahl Torp - THE UGLY STEPSISTER - streaming on AMC+ or Shudder

Peterson's seething envious mother, Jacobsen's gay nurse, and Torp's weird sadism -- lots of good work here. Jacobsen is a lead actor, though, ... category fraud is an international affliction ;)  

BEST NEWCOMER

• Lea Myren - THE UGLY STEPSISTER
• Hamza Agoshi - MY UNCLE JENS  
• Maja Tothammer-Hruza - ELSKLING

Lea Myren is truly committed "Elvira" in The Ugly Stepsister, and it's a high profile film. If you haven't caught it yet, it's rentable online and free to stream if you have AMC+ or Shudder subscriptions. 

Hamza Agoshi snags the only nomination for MY UNCLE JENS which played SXSW earlier this year. It's a dramedy about an Iranian-Norwegian teacher whose uncle (Agoshi) visist from Iran for what is supposed to be a short visit... but keeps on going. 

Maja Tothammer-Hruza plays one of the daughters of the couple in crisis in Elskling. 

BEST SCREENPLAY

• Dag Johan Haugerun - DREAMS
• Lila Ingolfsdottir - ELSKLING
• Emilie Blichfeldt - THE UGLY STEPSISTER

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• ARMAND
• ELSKLING
• BEFORE DARK - A thriller about a Norwegian aid worker in the middle of a civil war in Central African Republic

BEST EDITING 

• DREAMS
• ELSKLING
• FACING WAR - a documentary about Jens Stoltenberg's final year as NATO Chief dealing with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

BEST SOUND

• ARMAND
• DREAMS
• SKI -a documentary about a filmmaker fascinated with his former friends decision to ski 27 mountains without telling anyone. 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• NUMBER 24 - currently streaming on Netflix.
• THE UGLY STEPSISTER 
• BEFORE DARK

Number 24 is a true story World War II drama. It opened in Norway after the cutoff date for Oscar submissions last year.  

BEST SCORE

• DREAMS - Anna Berg
• EVERYTHING MUST GO - Thomas Dybdahl 
• FACING WAR - Röyksopp

Everything Must Go is a drama about adult siblings emptying their childhood home, which stirs up old conflicts.

As far as I can tell the score to Facing War is the first time the Grammy winning electronic duo Röyksopp have written an original score for a film. 

BEST CHILDREN'S FILM

• JULE MED ASTRID LINDGREN -a television christmas special
• KVITEBJØRN - an animated film based on the fairy tale the Polar Bear Prince
• TODD & SUPER-STELLA - a documentary about a brother in kindergarten and his younger sister. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

• A CALL FROM THE WILD - an environmental documentary that's been making festival rounds since the latter half of 2024. 
• PUNISHMENT - a documentary about four inmates in Norwegian prison who enter a three week Jesuit silent retreat
• FACING WAR

Facing War seems like the kind of international appeal doc that will probably show up at US documentary festivals as well. 

BEST FOREIGN FILM 

• A COMPLETE UNKNOWN 
• THE BRUTALIST 
• THE SUBSTANCE 

They went very "Oscar Best Picture race" here which is not unusual for them. Last summer, Poor Things beat Oppenheimer to this prize, months after Oppenheimer's Oscar triumph. Why do we think The Substance will win here?