Nordic International Film Festival (NIFF) announces winners

The Nordic International Film Festival (NIFF), the largest Nordic film festival outside of Europe, has announced its winners of the 2020 festival. Top honors went to MY NAME IS BAGHDAD for Best International Feature, FORCE OF HABIT for Best Nordic Feature, EVERYTHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN for Best Documentary Feature, and INDEX which received the Aurora Borealis award. The announcement was made today by the festival’s founders, Linnea Larsdotter and Johan Matton.

The festival, over October 16-20, hosted five days of new features and short films online that represented all the Nordic countries, including the Faroe islands.

NIFF kicked off on October 15th at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York with a special drive-in screening for the Scandinavian-produced A24 horror film MIDSOMMAR, starring Florence Pugh.

Among the features presented, the festival showcased 3 World Premieres (OSLO COPENHAGEN, NOVEMBEROSLO, A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS), 1 North American Premiere (EVERYTHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN), 2 US Premieres (FORCE OF HABIT, PETRA AND PETER), and 1 New York Premiere (WHERE MAN RETURNS).

The jurors for the 2020 committee included producer Anders Tangen, actress/producer Christiane Seidel, actor Craig DiFrancia, actor Alexander Karim, actor/screenwriter Jacob A. Ware and fashion executive Jennie Rosen.

The full winners and awards are as follows:

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

My Name Is Baghdad / Director Caru Alves de Souza

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM

L’Oro Di Famiglia / Director Emanuele Pisano

BEST NORDIC FEATURE FILM

Force of Habit / Directors Reetta Aalto, Alli Haapasalo, Anna Paavilainen, Kirsikka Saari, Miia Tervo, Elli Toivoniemi, Jeni Toivoniemi 

BEST NORDIC SHORT FILM

Daddy’s Girl / Julia Lindström

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

Everything That Could Have Been / Director Trond Kvig Andreassen

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

Wasteland / Director Daniel Milton

AURORA BOREALIS

Index / Director Nicolas Kolovos

BEST DIRECTOR

Caru Alves de Souza (My Name Is Baghdad)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER

Eirik Evjen, Audun Fjeldheim (Everything That Could Have Been)

BEST FEMALE ACTOR

Cecilie Elisabeth Bogø Bach (Incident at School)

BEST MALE ACTOR

Ben Irving, Jack Irving (Giants Being Lonely)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Unnur

Silicon Valley, Baby

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 Camerimage Film Festival: Danish Oscar Entry ‘The Girl With the Needle’ Wins Golden Frog - November 23, 2024
• 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November) - November 22, 2024
• 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024