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Norway’s “Loveable” swept the 15th Beijing International Film Festival’s Tiantan Awards, claiming best feature film, best director for Lilja Ingolfsdottir, and best actress for Helga Guren. Best screenplay went to Ingolfsdottir and Sahaja and Sagara for “Trapped.”

Pierre Bastin and Benjamin Lambillotte shared the best actor prize for their performances in the Belgian feature “Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World.”

China made a strong showing in the supporting categories. The best supporting actor award was shared by Hai Yitian for “Better Me, Better You” and Geng Le for his role in “Trapped.” Mara Bestelli took home best supporting actress for her work in “The Message,” which also triumphed with the best artistic contribution award and best cinematography award for Gustavo Schiaffino, signaling a standout night for the Argentine production.

Marc Bastien won best music for Italy’s “The Great Ambition.” “Nawi: Dear Future Me” was accorded a special jury honor.

After several sun-kissed days, Beijing brought out the stars on Saturday night as Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s debut feature, Norwegian marital drama Loveable, won the best feature film honor, plus three additional awards, at a closing ceremony full of Chinese stars and music that wrapped up the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival on a high.

With director Ingolfsdottir not in attendance, it was up to her star Helga Guren to collect not only the best actress award but also the other honors.

Iván Fund’s The Message left the evening with three Tiantan Awards, while Chinese filmmaker Sagara’s Trapped picked up honors in two categories.

Other award winners included Noëlle Bastin and Baptiste Bogaert’s Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World, Hao Ming and Li Peiran’s Better Me, Better You, and Nawi: Dear Future Me, directed by Tobias Schmutzler, Kevin Schmutzler, Apuu Mourine,...

The Irish comedy “Kneecap” was the big winner at the 2024 Les Arcs Film Festival. It won the Crystal Arrow for Best Film and several other important prizes. The film tells the story of how the Irish-language hip-hop group with the same name got started. It was already well known before the festival, but now it’s been chosen for Best International Feature and Best Song at the 2025 Academy Awards.

As part of its win, “Kneecap” will receive a €20,000 digital advertising campaign with France Televisions for free. Thanks to this help, the film will be better when it comes out in France on June 18, 2025, through Wayna Pitch. The film won more than one award: the Young Jury Prize and the Cinglés du Cinéma prize. Michael “Mikey J” Asante was also praised for writing his music.

The festival took place in the beautiful French mountain resort from December 14–21 and had its best year yet,...

Rich Peppiatt’s Irish comedy Kneecap has won the Crystal Arrow for best film atFrance’s Les Arcs Film Festival, which ran from December 14-21, 2024 in the mountain resort town.

The origin story of the titular Irish-language hip-hop group earned a €20,000 digital promotional campaign in partnership with France Televisions for its release. Wayna Pitch will release the film in France on June 18, 2025 and Charades handles international sales.

Kneecap,whichhas been shortlisted in the best international feature and best song categories for the 2025 Oscars, racked up several prizes at the festival including the young jury prize voted on by high-school students,...

From its debut at the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s Loveable impressed critics with its sensitive portrayal of a fraying marriage. While the opening scenes depict the joy and passion of new love between Maria and Sigmund, tensions emerge years later as responsibilities and distance take their toll. As arguments escalate, Sigmund suggests Maria seek help with her anger.

This prompts Maria’s introspective journey at the film’s core. Faced with loneliness after separating from Sigmund, she reflects on their relationship’s downfall. Struggling in her role as a mother of four, Maria questions who she is and what she truly needs. Ingolfsdottir explores these challenges with care, avoiding simplistic characterizations. Through therapy and encounters with family, Maria gains a deeper understanding of herself and how her past still influences her behaviors.

Helga Guren delivers a powerhouse-leading performance as Maria, carrying viewers along her journey from rage to self-scrutiny.

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) wrapped up on Saturday with a celebration of international cinema and notable industry figures. The festival’s top honor, the Grand Prix – Crystal Globe, was awarded to Mark Cousins’ documentary “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things,” narrated by Tilda Swinton, exploring the life of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

Norwegian director Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s marital drama “Loveable” emerged as a major winner, securing five awards including the Special Jury Prize, the Europa Cinemas Label, and the Fipresci Award. The film’s lead actress, Helga Guren, also took home the Best Actress award.

Other significant winners included:

Best Director: Nelicia Low for “Pierce” Best Actors: Ton Kas and Guido Pollemans for “Three Days of Fish” Audience Award: “Waves” by Jirí Mádl Proxima Grand Prix: “Stranger” by Zhengfan Yang

The closing ceremony was highlighted by the presentation of the Kviff President’s Award to British actor Clive Owen,...

Mark Cousins’ unconventional portrait of an artist “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things” took top honors at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, snagging the fest’s iconic Crystal Globe alongside a cash prize of $25K to split by the Scottish-Irish filmmaker and his producing partners.

Featuring the voice work of Tilda Swinton, the award-winning doc follows the life and career of artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a lesser-known master of modern art whose outlook and output underwent a profound spiritual, aesthetic and ideological transformation once the painter had a moment of epiphany atop Switzerland’s Grindelwald glacier in 1949.

The climbing expedition left Barns-Graham with a new set of obsessions and forms of expression – giving her life a new meaning.

Before claiming the Jury Prize, Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s domestic drama “Loveable” also took acting honors for star Helga Guren as well as parallel awards from the Ecumenical Jury, the Europa Cinema Label,...

Mark Cousins’ portrait of a British modernist painter, “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things,” took the Karlovy Vary Film Festival top prize Saturday, winning over a jury that included Christine Vachon and Geoffrey Rush with its perceptive take on art and seeing.

Cousins said the film’s subject, painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, “lived completely, truly and utterly – let’s try to do that.”

Norwegian divorce story “Loveable” won the Crystal Globe jury prize, as well as three other awards categories, taking home the Fipresci, ecumenical and Europa Cinemas Label prizes with its nuanced look at a woman morphing into a new life.

Director Lilja Ingolfsdottir scored big with her first feature-length drama with “Loveable,” telling the audience at the Hotel Thermal Grand Hall the story helped her “find barriers we have built against connections.”

The directing prize went to Nelicia Low for the Singapore/Taiwan/Poland production “Pierce,” an intricate account...

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 to July 6) boasted not one but two competitions, the Crystal Globe and Proxima, presided over by the festival president Jiří Bartoška, artistic director Karel Och, and executive director Kryštof Mucha. The festival is the main summer event in the country, which attracts many sponsors and patrons who want to attend, and faces none of the financial hardships of such festivals as Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance. 130 films are shown, with 140,000 tickets sold. There is no room for growth, given the limited venues, from the many screening rooms at the festival hub, the Hotel Thermal, where juror Christine Vachon mixed Negronis for her fellow jurors between screenings, to the colorful arthouse Kino Drahomira, named after a revered Czech woman director.

The Eastern European festival falls between Cannes and Venice, and programs many films in its Crystal Globe Competition that did not make the cut at Cannes,...

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, Mark Cousins‘ documentary essay about Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and her neurodiversity, including diary passages narrated by Tilda Swinton, won the Grand Prix – Crystal Globe, the top award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on Saturday. Clive Owen was honored with a Kviff award at the closing ceremony.

A Sudden Glimpse is “exploring the pivotal 1949 experience atop Switzerland’s Grindelwald glacier that reshaped British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s artistic perspective for decades to come.” The Crystal Globe comes with a $25,000 prize. “I did not expect this in a million years,” Cousins said in accepting the honor. About Barns-Graham, he said: “She didn’t change the world. But she lived completely, fully and utterly. Let’s try to do that.”

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival‘s closing ceremony also honored the Norwegian marital drama Loveable, directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir, with its special jury prize,...

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6) came to a close this evening with an awards ceremony that saw Mark Cousins’ essay film A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things win the main prize in the festival’s Crystal Globe competition. Narrated by Tilda Swinton and — in Cousins’ familiar, idiosyncratic style, exploring themes of gender, climate change and creativity — the UK film offers a creative biography of Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004). Coming what most have been a close second to take the Jury Prize — and Best Actress Award for its star, Helga Guren — was Norway’s acclaimed divorce drama Loveable, directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir.

Also taking the stage tonight was Czech actor Ivan Trojan, already perhaps the country’s most garlanded performer, who received the Festival President’s Award for Contribution to Czech Cinema. And following hot on the heels of Viggo Mortensen and Daniel Brühl, British actor...

UK director Mark Cousins’s A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things has won the top prize, the Crystal Globe, at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, while Loveable by Norwegian director Lilja Ingolfsdottir won five awards in total including the special jury prize and best actress award for Helga Guren.

Cousins‘ A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things is a documentary portrait of British painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a leading figure in the modernist St Ives group of artists. Screen’s review said that Cousins brought “his distinctively poetic and enquiring approach to this elegiac cine-essay“ to the film. Conic acquired...

Wounded by the breakdown of her first marriage, a young mother of two meets a kind, handsome, charismatic new man and — after a protracted but ultimately successful romantic pursuit — learns to believe in love once more. This would be the complete arc of many a crowd-pleasing romcom or relationship drama. In “Loveable,” however, it merely fills the opening minutes, taking us to the title card on a wave of upbeat pop and sun-washed lensing. And then the story really begins, as Norwegian writer-director Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s unusual, intelligent marriage story wonders what happens when a second chance goes the way of the first, and who, if anyone, is to blame. Even after that buoyant, wrongfooting intro, however, the film has several further tonal shifts and narrative redirections up its sleeve.

What initially appears to be a fraught domestic two-hander becomes a more intensive solo character study, as Maria (Helga Guren...

Female rage. Who doesnt love it? After decades of women being sidelined and forced into submissive roles, movies that allow the girls to scream until they lose their voice and embark on vengeful rampages just never get old. These types of tales are usually seen in the horror genre, with many a final girl fighting back against her tormentor and avenging her friends and family. But what about when rage grabs hold of an ordinary woman and becomes a force of self-destruction rather than protection? Theres no villain to take it out on, no death to exact revenge for. Lilja Ingolfsdottirs feature debut Loveabe (Elskling in its native Norway) may appear as a romantic drama on the surface, a close look at the inner workings of a marriage that gives way to the pressures of life and family. But as the movie unfolds, it becomes a story of loving, appreciating,...

A graduate of both the London Film School and the Film and Television School of Performing Arts in Prague (Famu), Norwegian director Lilja Ingolfsdottir has helmed over 20 shorts. Now the writer-director makes her feature film debut with Loveable, which premieres this week as part of Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe competition.

Loveable follows the fortunes of a 40-year-old woman, played by Helga Guren, whose world is turned upside down when her husband (Oddgeir Thune) asks for a divorce.

The Norwegian film is produced by Thomas Robsham, the producer of films such as Louder Than Bombs and The Worst Person In The World,...

TrustNordisk has sold “Loveable” to Estin Film for Lithuania and Estonia, Cinemania Group for the former Yugoslavia and September Film for Benelux.

The film, directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir, making her feature debut, premieres at Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Tuesday.

It’s produced by Thomas Robsahm (“The Worst Person in the World”) and Nordisk Film Production. In September, it picked up the Best Nordic Project Award at the Finnish Film Affair.

“I wanted to see how far I could go and how brave I could be,” Ingolfsdottir told Variety.

“With the actors, and everyone else involved in the process, we had to be emotional, available and transparent. Now, I’ve heard from people that it wasn’t like watching a film. They felt like they’ve been through something transformative.”

In the story, Maria (Helga Guren) is shocked to discover her husband Sigmund (Oddgeir Thune) wants a divorce. She’s devastated,...

Norway’s Lilja Ingolfsdottir won the top prize this week at the Finnish Film Affair for her feature directorial debut “Loveable,” a relationship drama about a woman forced to find herself as her marriage falls apart. Pic is produced by “The Worst Person in the World’s” Thomas Robsahm and Nordisk Film Production, with Scandinavian powerhouse TrustNordisk repping world sales.

Written by Ingolfsdottir and headlined by Scandinavian stars Helga Guren (“22. juli”) and Oddgeir Thune (“Blind Spot”), “Loveable” follows 40-year-old Maria, a mom juggling four children and a demanding career while her second husband, Sigmund, travels all the time. Their marriage begins to unravel under the strain of competing needs. Despite Maria’s desperate efforts to salvage their relationship, Sigmund eventually tells her he wants to divorce and forces her to face her worst fears.

Speaking to Variety the morning after her Helsinki triumph, Ingolfsdottir says the film is based on first-hand experience,...

“The Worst Person in the World” producer Thomas Robsahm is set to produce “Loveable,” another contemporary relationship movie headlined by Scandinavian stars Helga Guren (“22. juli”) and Oddgeir Thune (“Blind Spot”).

Scandinavia’s leading sales company TrustNordisk is representing “Loveable” in international markets.

“Loveable” will mark the long-gestated feature debut of Lilja Ingolfsdottir, who has directed a flurry of well-received shorts, including “Neglect,” and is teaching directing and filmmaking at the Norwegian Film School.

Penned by Ingolfsdottir, “Loveable” follows Maria, 40, who juggles four children and a demanding career while her second husband, Sigmund, travels all the time. One evening, Sigmund comes home from a long work trip abroad and finds Maria frustrated and exhausted. They get into an ugly argument and Maria bursts with anger. Despite Maria’s desperate efforts to salvage their relationship, Sigmund eventually tells her he wants to divorce and forces her to face her worst fears.

Robsahm,...