Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006 has found the winners of The Golden Swan. The winners are appointed by the international jury, which was made up of five known personalities from the European film industry.

Ghita Nørby was heading the jury, which also consisted of the cinematographer Robby Müller from the Netherlands, the director Pawel Pawlikowski from the United Kingdom, the director Kornél Mundruczó from Hungary and the actress Tuva Novotny from Sweden.

The main award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival is THE GOLDEN SWAN, awarded by the jury to films in the main competition. Finding a name for a new film prize is no easy task, although the swan soon emerged as an obvious symbol. The swan is the national bird of Denmark and follows the tradition of giving film prizes animal names.

The GOLDEN SWAN statuette in bronze was designed by the renowned Danish designer Lin Utzon.

Best Film

12:08 East of Bucharest (A fost sau n-a fost? , Romania, 2006)
Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu.

Jury president Ghita Nørby states: `This is a film about a large political subject, treated with seriousness and insight, and with a disarming sense of humour and irony, which makes the problem immediate and dangerous for the audience. Here in Denmark, we do not believe that this kind of problem exists in our country, but maybe we are wrong, maybe it is not so far from one country to another.´

Best Screenplay
12:08 East of Bucharest (A fost sau n-a fost? , Romania, 2006)
Screenplay: Corneliu Porumboiu.

Best Director
Kim Rossi Stuart, Along the Ridge (Anche libero va bene, Italy 2006)

Best Actor
Ulrich Mühe, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen, Germany 2006)

Best Actress
Heidrun Bartholomäus, Happy as one (Komm näher, Germany 2006)

Best Cinematography
Stefano Falivene, Along the Ridge (Anche libero va bene, Italy 2006)

Alice Award 2006

The Alice Award, which is named after the director Alice O’Fredericks, goes to the film:

Longing, written and directed by Valeska Grisebach (Sehnsucht, Germany, 2006).


The motivation of the Alice jury reads as follows:

`Longing is a strong emotion, and it is this emotion that Valeska Grisebach makes us feel and understand. She has described it in a surprisingly sharp and unsentimental way. Grisebach has the ability to tell neither too little nor too much, and to reach down into the minds of the audience, thus deeply touching them and raising important questions.´

The Alice jury was made up of: the director and producer Anne Wivel; the actor and dramatist Nicolas Bro; the communications director at Empire cinema, Katrina Schelin; the cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle; and the actress Lotte Andersen.


Audience Award – in collaboration with Politiken

This year’s audience award goes to the film The Lives of Others
(Das Leben der Anderen)

Lifetime Achievement Award

Henning Carlsen, whose masterpiece Hunger is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary, is given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his great importance for Danish film.