Lübeck, Nov. 5, 2015. At the German premiere of the film “Rams”, which yesterday opened the 57th Nordic Film Days Lübeck, the guests from the movie surprised festival directors Linde Fröhlich and Christian Modersbach with the gift of a hand-knit Icelandic sweater bearing a sheep's pattern. The film's lead actors Sigurdur Sigurjónsson and Theódór Júlíusson joined producer Grímar Jónsson as guests in Lübeck. Director Grímur Hákonarson sent a personal video message from the USA, where he is busy promoting the film for a foreign-language Oscar. The distributor Arsenal will release the film theatrically in Germany on December 31, 2015.
Mounted by the city of Lübeck, the Nordic Film Days festival is the only one of its kind in Europe that focuses exclusively on presenting films from the continent’s North and Northeast, as well as recent German films. Radio presenter Steen Lorenzen was the MC for the opening night ceremonies. Among his duties was joining the two NFL directors in introducing the jury for the NDR film prize, which includes actors Anjorka Strechel and Enrico Lo Verso, and producer Maria Köpf.
Before the screening, the red carpet was rolled out at the CineStar Filmpalast Stadthalle. Among other doings, there was a photo wall where guests could be captured for all eternity in an Icelandic sweater flanked by two sheep. Festival guests for the opening included the Icelandic ambassador to Germany, Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson; Schleswig-Holstein’s minister of culture, the judiciary and Europe, Anke Spoorendonk; Bernd Saxe, mayor of Lübeck, the city-state’s senator for culture and education, Kathrin Weiher and representatives from the embassies of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. After the screening of “Rams”, the audience of 550 got another “woolly surprise” when they arrived at the reception in the east chancel of Lübeck cathedral to be greeted by a small herd of “white horned heath” moorland sheep from Lübeck’s Dummersdorfer nature preserve.
The 57th Nordic Film Days Lübeck will screen a total of 180 films in the festival running until November 8th. In addition to filmmakers and directors, many of the actors in the films will be in town to present their work to the audiences of film fans. Among them are directors Mika Kaurismäki, Hermine Huntgeburth, Arne Feldhusen, Dagur Kári and actors Edgar Selge, Søren Malling, Anton Spieker and Louis Hofmann.
Jury selections for the eight film prizes awarded in the festival will be announced on November 7th in the Theater Lübeck during the 57th Nordic Film Days awards gala. The guest list includes for the evening includes many additional notables from the cultural and political sectors
The full festival programme, photos and detailed information on side-bar events is available online at www.filmtage.luebeck.de,
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