The Liv Ullmann Honorary Award

Director and producer Margreth Olin

The Liv Ullmann Honorary Award is bestowed on a female filmmaker who has excelled through her extraordinary talent and artistic contribution in Norwegian film or television drama. The prize was founded in 2006 by the Norwegian Film Institute, in co-operation with the Association of Norwegian Filmmakers and the Norwegian Film Festival. Previous laureates are the actress Ane Dahl Torp (2006) and the director Anja Breien (2008).

“A Vital and Important Voice”

“This year’s winner of the Liv Ullmann Honorary Award is a woman with a solid and well-founded engagement in social and political issues. Through her personal and profiled films she has over several years been a vital and important voice of Norwegian cinema. Her strongest suit are her sharp and fundamental questions. A true documentarist, she also participates in the public debate through newspaper articles and interviews. She is, moreover, an active participant in political processes, as evidenced most recently by her role in the debate over the return of asylum seekers in Norway. Her last film is based on raw and inhuman realities, but has been told in a sensitive feature film format, in respect of the main character. Her choice – and her directing – of Maria Bonnevie displays a directorial talent of international format”, noted the jury of the Liv Ullmann Honorary Award, which for 2010 comprised Nina Refseth, CEO of the Norwegian Film Institute, Gunnar Johan Løvvik, Director of the Norwegian Film Festival, and Sverre Pedersen, Chairman of the Association of Norwegian Filmmakers.

International Guests

Olin was presented with the Award during the Liv Ullmann Symposium, Performing Reflections, at the Film House in Oslo June 14th 2010. The symposium was a present from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture to Liv Ullmann on her 70th birthday, and organized by the Norwegian Film Institute. Among the guests were Peter Cowie (author and editor, Switzerland), Ghita Nørby (film and stage actress, Denmark), Jan Troell (film director, Sweden), James Schamus (producer and professor, USA), Helen Jacey (screenwriter and lecturer, Great Britain), Sara Johnsen (film director and novelist, Norway), and Petter Næss (film and stage director, Norway).

Source: Norwegian Film Institute