Haugesund: Iram Haq picked up four top statuettes including Best Film and Best Director at Saturday evening’s Amanda film awards, beating Joachim Trier and Erik Poppe.
What Will People Say’s triumph had all the more significance for Iram Haq who was inspired by her personal harsh experience of growing up between the Pakistani and Norwegian cultures. “This has been an important film to make for me and it was important for me to find the courage to tell about my own story,” said the writer/director to nrk.no, adding: “I hope that the film will give hope to other women and girls, and that they will do as I did and follow their dreams.”
(READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH IRAM HAQ: CLICK HERE).
Joachim Trier’s psycho-thriller Thelma which had the most nominations (12), won Best Cinematography, Best Music and Best Editing, while Erik Poppe’s drama U-July 22, picked up two Amandas for the strong performances of the non-professional 20 year-old Andrea Berntzen and 17 year-old Solveig Koløen Birkeland, voted Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.
Norway’s top selling film of 2017, the survival WW2 drama The 12th Man by Harald Zwart, won the People’s Amanda as well as Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects.
Nordisk Film & TV Fond was associated to 13 Amanda awards for What Will People Say, Thelma, U-July 22, The 12th Man and the documentary My Heart Belongs to Daddy.
Here is the full list of Amanda Awards 2018: