Erik Poppe’s A Thousand Times Goodnight (Paradox) and Eskil Vogt’s Blind (Motlys) are leading Norway’s annual Amanda film nominations with seven chances each to win a statuette, notably for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress.
The two films are competing for Best Film with last year’s top grossing film, The Christmas of Solan and Ludvig (Maipo Film), also running for Best Children’s Film and Best Art Direction.
The second most nominated films are Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s Ragnarok (Fantefilm) and Hisham Zaman’s Letter to the King (Film Farms) with four accolades each. Zaman’s drama, winner of a 2014 Dragon Award for Best Nordic film in Gothenburg, is vying for Best Director and Best Screenplay as well as Best Supporting Actor (Hasan Demirci) and Supporting Actress (Ivan Anderson), while the adventure film Ragnarok is represented in the main technical categories including Best Cinematography (Daniel Voldheim).
The challenge for jury members will be to choose between the very strong contenders in the leading female categories comprising Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Blind), Amrita Acharia (I Am Yours) and Juliette Binoche (A Thousand Times Good Night). To be eligible for the Amanda awards, films had to be released in Norwegian cinemas between July 1st, 2013 and June 30, 2014.
Nordisk Film & TV Fond was associated to a total of 18 nominations from seven films: A Thousand Times Good Night, Ragnarok, Pioneer, In Oder of Disappearance, Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder, Hocus Pocus, Alfie Atkins and the documentary Light Fly, Fly High.
The Amanda awards ceremony will take place during the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund and will be transmitted live on TV2 on Saturday August 16, 2014.
For the full list of Amanda nominations check: www.filmfestival.no