Thomas Vinterberg is nominated Best Director and his film Another Round is nominated Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. The film is shot in region Västra Götaland. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s feature The Man Who Sold His Skin is also nominated Best International Feature Film. Both films are co-produced by Film i Väst.
– We are extremely proud and happy for the nominations och congratulate both Thomas Vinterberg and Kaouther Ben Hania and their teams. This is the fourth respectvively the second films that we co-produce with them. Vinterberg’s film was shot in Västra Götaland in west Sweden and Ben Hania’s film includes team members from the region. This year three of our co-productions were shortlisted, so it is a good year. Besides Vinterberg och Ben Hania, norwegian director Maria Södahl’s Hope were among the fifteen international films, says Kristina Börjeson, Head of Production at Film i Väst.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin had it’s world premiere at Venice International Film Festival, Orizzonti sectio enice International Film Festival, Orizzonti section, where it won Edipo Re Award (Università degli Studi di Padova e ResInt Rete dell’Economia Sociale Internazionale). Cast Monica Bellucci, Yahya Mahayni, Dea Liane, Koed de Bouw, Wim Delvoye. Producers Tanit Films (FR), Cinetelefilms (TN) Co-producer Kwassa Films, Laika Films, Andreas Rocksén.
Synopsis Sam Ali, a young sensitive and impulsive Syrian, left his country for Lebanon to escape the war. To be able to travel to Europe and live with the love of his life, he accepts to have his back tattooed by one of by the World’s most sulfurous contemporary artist. Turning his own body into a prestigious piece of art, Sam will however come to realize that his decision might actually mean anything but freedom.
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The exciting journey of the Golden Globe®-nominated Danish drama, Another Round, continues. The Danish Oscar entry has been on an amazing journey already and is highly praised among the global audience, critics and festivals. Having sold no less than 800,000 admissions locally in the time of a pandemic as well as close to 70,000 digital copies upon the feature’s digital release, Another Round has become Vinterberg’s greatest cinema success to date and the best selling film digitally in Denmark.
Director Thomas Vinterberg comments on the nomination:
“This is wonderful news. Thank you very much to the Academy, and congratulations to my fellow nominees. I’m honored to be in your company. I’ve made some films over the years, but none of them have meant so much to me as this one. During a long journey like this, it matters most to be surrounded by great collaborators who are also great friends. My actors, Mads, my co-writer Tobias, Sturla my DOP, my producers from Zentropa and the amazing behind the scenes talent were all on this journey with me and gave all they had.Thank you from Denmark.”
The film has not only won the hearts of the audience, it has also been sold to most territories world-wide as well as received high appraisals and awards from the international critics and festivals. In the US, the film is released by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
An amazing festival run and awards season
The film was honoured with the official selection label at Cannes Film Festival 2020 as well as Toronto International Film Festival 2020, where it had its international premiere. In addition, the drama won the award ‘Prix des Cinémas Art et Essai in France’, the LFF Virtual Audience Award for ‘Best Film’ at the BFI London Film Festival 2020, the Silver Shell for ‘Best Actor’ at the 68th San Sebastian Film Festival, and no less than four awards at the 33rd European Film Awards 2020 (‘Best European Film’, ‘Best European Director’, ‘Best European Actor’, ‘Best European Screenwriter’ plus a nomination for the new Lux European Audience Award). Further, the film was nominated for the 25th annual Satellite Awards within the category ‘Motion Picture, International’ and BAFTA-nominated within no less than four categories: ‘Best Film not in the English Language’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Original Screenplay’ (Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg) and ‘Best Leading Actor’ (Mads Mikkelsen) last Tuesday. Only last week, the film was celebrated in France where it was selected the winner for ‘Best Foreign Film 2020’ (‘Prix de la critique 2020 – Meilleur Film Étranger’) by the French film critics as well as received the prestigious César Award at the 46th César Awards.
The film has been celebrated immensely in Scandinavia receiving ‘The Audience Dragon Award Best Nordic Film’ at Göteborg Film Festival 2021 and no less than five Robert statuettes at the Danish Film Awards 2021 for ‘Best Feature of the Year 2021’, ‘Best Original Screenplay of the Year’ (Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm), ‘Best Director of the Year’, ‘Best Male Lead of the Year’ (Mads Mikkelsen) and ‘Best Editor of the Year’ (Janus Billeskov Jansen and Anne Østerud). The Robert awards are presented by the Danish Film Academy and resemble fellow film academies like the American Oscar, the British BAFTA and the French César. The film is also nominated for five Bodil prizes, which are awarded by the Danish Film Critics’ Association.
Furthermore, a large number of international critics groups have individually selected Another Round as the winner of the category ‘Best Foreign Language Film’, including Chicago Film Critics Association and London Film Critics Circle, to name a few.
Besides its nomination for the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards and now nomination for the 93rd Academy Awards, this truly underlines the strong global affection for the film. This is also the second feature by Thomas Vinterberg to enter the Oscar race, with THE HUNT (2012) being his first nomination within the category ‘Best International Feature Film’. This is also the fifth time that a Zentropa-produced film receives an Oscar nomination.
Another Round, is produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing for Zentropa Entertainments3 in co-production with Film i Väst, Zentropa Sweden, Topkapi Films and Zentropa Netherlands with support from Danish Film Institute, TV 2 DENMARK, Eurimages, Netherlands Film Fund, Svenska Filminstitutet, Netherlands Film Production Incentive and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
