Sweden's Beyond wins 2011 Nordisk Råds Filmpris (Nordic Council Film Prize)

The winner of the 2011 Nordisk Råds Filmpris (Nordic Council Film Prize) was announced today. It was won by Sweden's Svinalängorna (Beyond) the directorial debut of actress Pernilla August. The award comes with a $65,000 (DKK 350,000) prize, which August will share with her co-writer Lolita Ray, and producers Helena Danielsson and Ralf Karlsson.

The film is an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Susanna Alakoski and stars Noomi Rapace and her real-life husband Ola Rapace. It had previously won Best Director, Supporting Actress (Outi Mäenpää) and Editing at Sweden's 2011 Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) Awards. Beyond is Sweden's submission to the Academy for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

The winners was announced in Denmark by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, the honourary chair of the Nordic Adjudication Committee. In addition to Mirren, the Adjudication Committee consisted of film critic Per Juul Carlsen (DK), communication manager Outi Heiskanen (FI), CEO Sif Gunarsdottir (IS), editor Silje Riise Næss (N) and film critic Fredrik Sahlin (S).

The nominees from the other Scandinavian countries were Sandheden om mænd (Truth About Men) by Nikolaj Arcel (Denmark), Brim (Undercurrent) by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (Iceland), Oslo, 31. august (Oslo, August 31st) by Joachim Trier (Norway), and Zaida Bergroth's Hyvä poika (The Good Son) (Finland).

The award will be presented at the Nordic Council meeting in Copenhagen on November 2nd.