by Nathaniel R
Mads Mikkelsen & Nikolaj Lie Kaas in THE LAST VIKING
We'd love to do a better job of covering all the Oscar-parallel prizes all over the world but there are only so many hours in the day. Nevertheless, we wanted to give a shout out to Denmark since they aren't competing for Best International Feature Film this year (their candidate, the documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin didn't make the International finalist list) and they usually are! Today they released the nominations for their own awards, called The Robert Awards. Let's investigate Picture, Actor, and Actress and which Oscar Best Picture Nominees (or Future Nominees) the Danes also love...
DANISH FILM OF THE YEAR
- The Girl with the Needle - 2024's Oscar nominated abortion thriller set in the early 20th Century [AVAILABLE TO RENT]
- Home Sweet Home - A drama about a young woman who takes a job as a Home Caregiver
- The Last Viking - a star vehicle comedy about two brothers, one who is just out of prison
- Sauna - a gay man unexpectedly falls for a trans man in this queer drama. It's also nominated for the EFA Discovery Award [AVAILABLE TO RENT]
- The Second Victim - A medical drama about a procedure that ends in tragedy for a skilled neurologist
Here we see two separate Oscar years colliding (the nature of international distribution and eligibillity peculiarities) with 2024's Oscar nominee The Girl With The Needle starring Trine Dyrholm competing with The Last Viking starring Mads Mikkelsen which was one of their finalists for the Oscar submission for 2025 but wasn't ultimately selected.
And two Oscar years collide in the next two categories, too.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Emma Stone in BUGONIA
- The Brutalist
- Bugonia
- A Complete Unknown
- One Battle After Another
- A Real Pain
NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
LOVE (SEX, DREAMS) from Norway
- Dreams (Norwegian) - AVAILABLE TO RENT
- Emilia Perez (Spanish) - STREAMING ON NETFLIX
- I'm Still Here (Portugueuse) AVAILABLE TO RENT
- Love (Norwegian) AVAILABLE TO RENT
- There's Still Tomorrow (Italian)
So nice to see two of Dag Johan Haugerud's brilliant trilogy (Love, Sex, and Dreams) in the mix. They haven't gotten much attention stateside but you will see them in the Film Bitch Awards!
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
- Freja Klint Sandberg - No Dear Mother
- Jette Søndergaard - Home Sweet Home
- Mathilde Arcel - Rejseholdet: The First Murder
- Vic Carmen Sonne - The Girl with the Needle
- Özlem Saglanmak - Second Victims
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
- Besir Zeciri - The Girl With the Needle
- Mads Mikkelsen - The Last Viking
- Magnus Juhl Andersen - Sauna
- Nikolaj Lie Kaas - The Last Viking
- Nina Rask - Sauna
So refreshing when there's a lack of category fraud with duet films; The Last Viking and Sauna both landed two nominations in this category.
A few more notes on the nominations
Trine Dyrholm in Denmark's Oscar Nominated THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE
The superb Trine Dyrholm who we've loved for years received two Best Supporting Actress nominations for the films The Girl with the Needle (she won the silver medal here) and The Second Victim
The Danish actress turned director Paprika Steen's (of Celebration & Applause fame) latest comedy To New Beginnings received a screenplay nomination. It opened in Denmark in November of 2025 which means it will theoretically be eligible to compete for Denmark's Oscar submission in 2026 but it's lack of high profile nominations at the Roberts suggests that it won't.
The DP Michal Dymek, who we nominated here last season for his nightmare-fuel black and white cinematography for The Girl With the Needle is also up for the same award at home.
Tilda Swinton in THE END
2024's Tilda Swinton led musical oddity The End received some craft nominations (it had multiple Danish artists in the crew) including for Jette Lehmann's brilliant Production Design which made the finals here in my own awards.
This season's Danish Oscar submission Mr Nobody Against Putin is up for Best Documentary (and could even be nominated for the Oscar in that parallel category since it made the finals.)
You can see all the nominees here.