Oscars Fever: Another Round
Oscars Fever for Another Round, tension rises.....the film, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and co-produced by Amsterdam-based Topkapi Films is nominated for the 93rd Academy Awards in both the Best International Feature Film and Best Director categories. Fingers crossed for coming Sunday, when the awards ceremony will take place.
The film has been previously honoured the Official Selection label at Cannes Film Festival 2020 and had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has already won numerous prizes, including Best European Film, Best European Director and Best European Screenwriter at the European Film Awards, the Silver Shell for Best Actor at San Sebastian and Best Film at BFI London. Furthermore the film has received a Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Foreign Language Picture.
In June 2020 SEE NL spoke to Topkapi's Frans van Gestel about being involved in the production and its selection for Cannes.
Van Gestel knew from the outset that he wanted to be involved on Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round (Denmark). The company had successfully (and happily) co-produced the director's The Commune (2016), and when Van Gestel heard the pitch for the latest film he was hooked "by the brilliance and the simplicity of the idea."
With the new-found belief that a small but continual level of alcohol in their blood will open their minds up to the world, diminish their problems and increase their levels of creativity, four school teacher friends embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday. It is a course of action not without consequences...
Another Round, supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, is scripted by Tobias Lindholm (The Commune, Borgen) and stars Mads Mikkelsen. "I immediately knew that Thomas Vinterberg could bring it home, and he did," says Van Gestel.
That said, there is no denying the acute disappointment the producer feels at the way events have panned out this year, rendering the Spring and early Summer festivals physically inaccessible.
"It's really, really sad when you have a strong film like this which would have been in Cannes, that it's not there," he comments. "My cinema heart is broken, but at the same time we know there are bigger problems in the world right now, and I am actually convinced that this film will find its way. It's a dramatic existential story on one hand - the meaning of my life at a certain age - and at the same time it is also very funny. The combination of those two elements fit perfectly for a post-Covid release."