Juries and Awards

Axel Hellstenius

Axel Hellstenius is one of Norway's most prolific dramatists. Over more than 30 years in the industry, he has written scripts for 9 TV series, 13 Norwegian feature films and 11 stage plays, among other work.

As a screenwriter, he is best known for the scripts for DØDEN PÅ OSLO S and, not least, ELLING, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002. Other feature films include SECONDLØITNANTEN, OVER STORK OG STEIN, SALIGE ER DE SOM TØRSTER, MORS ELLING, BEATLES and BLÜCHER, which became one of the year's most-watched films in Norwegian cinemas.

Hisham Zaman

Director, screenwriter and producer Hisham Zaman achieved his international breakthrough with the award-winning short film BAWKE (2005), which screened at Sundance and many other film festivals around the world.

Zaman has directed the feature films BEFORE SNOWFALL (2013) and LETTER TO THE KING (2014). Both films won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Gothenburg International Film Festival.

His third feature film, A HAPPY DAY, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.

Johanna Pyykkö

Johanna Pyykkö is a Norwegian and Swedish-Finnish director and screenwriter who has written and directed TV dramas and feature films and made short films.

THE MANILA LOVER premiered at Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and won the Amanda for Best Short Film. Her debut feature MIN FANTASTISKE FREMMEDE received the Arte Kino Award at MIA Rome and premiered at Premier Plans d'Angers and in the Dragon Award competition at the Gothenburg Film Festival in January 2024.

Birgitte Sigmundstad

Birgitte Sigmundstad lives in Oslo and works primarily with moving images. She was educated at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in England and has had a number of exhibitions and screenings in Norway and abroad. The themes in Sigmundstad's films are tied to art, art history or historical events. Another recurring subject in Sigmundstad's films is how art is used ideologically, as pictured in ART AND NON-ART (2020), about the exhibition of the same name in a nazified National Gallery in Oslo in 1942, and HAMMERSBORG: PROTECTING THE BYGONE FUTURE (2017), which looks at the social democratic project and modernist architecture. In recent years Sigmundstad has worked on several films about the mediation of the Second World War in Norway. The film WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT WAR (2021) was awarded the BKH's Art Photography Prize. In 2012 she was granted the guaranteed income for artists by the Norwegian State. THE NEW MUSEUM, a film which follows the construction and planning of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway over 8 years, premiered in 2025.

Mari Bakke Riise

Mari Bakke Riise (b. 1982) is a producer and director. She runs the production company A5 Film, which produces character-driven documentaries with the aim of creating insight, change and engagement for a Norwegian and international audience.

She has been behind a number of award-winning documentaries, including KAYAYO, which won 17 international awards and was shortlisted for an Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards. She has also produced UKJENT LANDSKAP, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award. The film has won over 16 awards, including an Amanda for Best Documentary, has been shown at a number of international festivals, and has received wide international distribution.

Rune Denstad Langlo

Rune Denstad Langlo (b. 1972) is a director and screenwriter who has directed documentaries such as 99% HONEST (2008), DEN SISTE KAMPEN (2010), and THE NORWEGIAN HEADACHE (2021). Rune’s debut feature film NORTH (2009) won the FIPRESCI Award in Berlinale Panorama, and the same year he was named Best New Narrative Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival.

He went on to write and direct the films CHASING THE WIND (2013) and WELCOME TO NORWAY! (2016), the latter of which won the Audience Award at the Göteborg Film Festival. In recent years, he has directed the TV series FRIKJENT (2015), GRENSENLAND (2017), BESATT (2019), GUTTA PÅ SKAUEN (2022), and MILF OF NORWAY (2024).