40th Nordic Film Days Luebeck

The INTERFILM Jury awards its prize to the film ‘The Celebration’ by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg for his innovative and courageous treatment of an old theme. Vinterberg shows what happens when the eldest son of a family confronts his father and the guests at the birthday party with a dark secret of the family: the abuse of him and his sister by their father.

Vinterberg's original aesthetic language corresponds with the precise dramatic structure of the story. The director shows that only the painful revelation of the secrets of the past leads to liberation and opens the way to the future. Vinterberg's film encourages reflection on family power structures and their destructive potential.

The Jury awards a Commendation to "Only Clouds Move the Stars" for the sensitive way how it treats the difficult issue of a child's loss.