‘Godland,’ ‘The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic’ Nominated for Nordic Council Film Prize

variety.com:

Marta Balaga Five Nordic features are nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize. The prestigious recognition, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, was first awarded to Aki Kaurismäki’s “The Man Without a Past.”Hlynur Pálmason’s “Godland,” Teemu Nikki’s “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” “Lamb” by Valdimar Jóhannson, Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated “The Worst Person in the World” and “Clara Sola,” directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, will all vie for the award.It is billed as a prize that celebrates “a unique filmmaking vision, deeply rooted in Nordic culture” and comes with a sum of DKK 300,000 ($40,000), shared equally between the director, screenwriter and producer.

Trier, fresh off his win at Saturday’sAmanda Awards, already won the prize in 2016 for “Louder Than Bombs.” It’s also not the first nomination for Finland’s Nikki, previously noticed for darkly comedic “Euthanizer.” His new film, featuring Petri Poikolainen who suffers from MS, scored the Audience Award at Venice and mere days ago was named best film at Beijing International Film Festival, with Poikolainen winning the best actor gong.“We all knew the film was quite good, but we were not ready for this kind of success.

It surprised all of us. But I can’t complain. Getting our movie to many festivals and winning many prizes is quite pleasant.

It could be worse,” Nikki told  Variety.“It’s amazing. Prizes keep coming and coming, and I just love it,” added Poikolainen, with producer Jani Pösö chiming in:“I am super proud of the success of our film.