A Fortunate Man and The Guilty shortlisted for the Oscars
27.08.2018
Bille August’s A Fortunate Man and Gustav Möller’s The Guilty have been placed on the shortlist to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category
Three Danish films have been selected as the possible candidates to be Denmark’s nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Two of these films, A Fortunate Man and The Guilty, are produced by Nordisk Film. A Fortunate Man, directed by Bille August, premiers in Denmark on August 30th, while The Guilty, directed by Gustav Möller, made its debut in Denmark on June 14th. The third Danish film on the Oscar shortlist is Hlynur Pálmason’s Winter Brothers.
The three candidates were selected by the Danish Oscar-committee, which is made up of representatives from the film industry and the Danish Film Institute. The committee will reconvene on Thursday, September 20th to make the final selection.
“We are proud of both A Fortunate Man and The Guilty to be in the running for an Oscar nomination. They are two vastly different films, one an innovative, low-budget production from Nordisk Film’s talent initiative, Nordisk Film Spring, and the other a blockbuster production from one of the most experienced film-makers in Denmark. Together they prove that Nordisk Film is a creative hub that attracts fantastic talents,” says CEO of Nordisk Film, Allan Mathson Hansen.
A Fortunate Man, written by Bille August and Anders Frithiof August, is based on a classic 19th century “fin de siècle” novel by Henrik Pontoppidan about a clergyman’s son who travels to Copenhagen in search of happiness in the modern, industrialized world. The film was produced for Nordisk Film by Karin Trolle and Thomas Heinesen. This is familiar territory for August, who’s film Pelle the Conqueror, an adaption of another turn of the century Danish classic written by Martin Andersen Nexø, took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989.
The Guilty takes place in the frame of a single night at an emergency call center, as it follows a policeman’s race against time to save a kidnapped woman with the call center phone as his only tool. The film won the Audience Award at its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival and has since enjoyed widespread positive reception. More than 137,000 tickets have been sold in Denmark and France since its June 14th premiere, and 190,000 moviegoers have already viewed the thrilled. The film is written by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen, and produced by Lina Flint for Nordisk Film Spring. The Guilty is set to be released in US theatres on October 19th by Magnolia Pictures.
