STOCKHOLM – Lisa Aschan‘s powerful feature debut She Monkeys, the story of two teenage athletes locked in a physical and pschological battle, won best film at Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards, the country’s top film honors.
Aschan and Josefine Adolfsson shared the best screenplay honor and Andreas Franck also picked up the Guldbagge for best sound for his She Monkeys‘ score.
But the best director nod went to Ruben Ostlund for his crime drama Play. His camerman, Marius Dybwad Brandrud, also got the best cinematography nod.
Veteran Swedish performer Sven-Bertil Taube won best actor for his role as a widower battling his children over their inheritance in Richard Hobert‘s A One-way to Antibes. Ann Petren took best actress for her starring turn in the drama Happy End from director Bjorn Runge.
The WWII period drama Simon and the Oaks, which led the Guldbagge nominations with a record 13, went home with just two: with Cecilia Nilsson and Germany’s Jan Josef Liefers sweeping the supporting acting categories. Another period piece, the 1980s-set drama Crown Jewels, won three Guldbagge trophies in technical categories.
Another multiple winner was the found footage documentary The Black Power Mixtapes, 1967-1975, which examines the American black power movement and which picked up Guldbagge awards for best music and best editing.
Asghar Farhadi‘s A Seperation, Iran’s best foreign language Oscar hopeful, won the Guldbagge in the same category.
