Ola Rapace, Noomi Rapace, Beyond
Actress-turned-director Pernilla August’s directorial debut, Beyond topped the 2010 Guldbagge Award nominations. The psychological family drama earned eight nods for the "Swedish Oscars," including Best Film and Best Director.
Beyond tells the story of a woman (Rapace) who faces her dying, abusive mother.Winner of the 2010 Venice Film Festival’s International Critics Week award, Beyond stars Best Actress nominee Noomi Rapace, internationally known as the anti-heroine of the Millennium trilogy films — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. [List of Guldbagge nominations.]
In the Best Film category, the 34-member jury also selected Babak Najafi’s Sebbe and Andreas Öhman’s Simple Simon, Sweden’s submission for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In the Best Director category, Öhman was replaced by Pure’s Lisa Langseth.
In Sebbe, the bullied fifteen-year-old title character (Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs, photo) lives an isolated life that becomes even more lonely after his adored mother fails him. The sentimental comedy Simple Simon tells the story of an 18-year-old (Bill Skarsgård, one of Stellan Skarsgård’s sons) suffering from Asperger’s syndrome as he attempts to hook up his caring brother (Martin Wallström) with a free-spirited woman (Cecilia Forss).
The Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) winners will be announced on Jan. 24 in Stockholm.
Photo: Beyond (Rolf Konow); Sebbe (via the Swedish Film Institute)