Oscar-Nominated Rúnar Rúnarsson Wins Göteborg’s Best Nordic Film Award for ‘When the Light Breaks,’ as ’Memoir of a Snail’ Nabs Best International Film

variety.com:

Annika Pham Prominent Icelandic auteur Rúnar Rúnarsson who was Oscar-nominated in 2006 for his short film “The Last Farm,” was handed out the Göteborg Film Festival’s hefty SEK400,000 ($36,000) Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film for his fourth feature “When the Light Breaks” at tonight’s closing gala of the festival’s 48th edition.

Shot in 16mm, the subtle coming-of-age drama starring Elín Hall (“Cold”, “Let Me Fall”) world premiered last May as the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

The story turns on Una, a young art student who encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty during on a long summer day in Iceland.

The jury for Best Nordic Film including filmmakers Ella Lemhagen, Philippe Lesage, Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer JP Passi and actor Frida Gustavsson, said the film was awarded the festival’s top prize “for its masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble.” The film produced by Iceland’s Compass Films, the Netherlands’ Revolver Amsterdam, Croatia’s MP Film and France’s Jour de Fête was sold by The Party Film Sales nearly worldwide.