Carl Th. Dreyer Award to Anders Østergaard

Of course we Danes must have an award carrying the name of Dreyer:

“Every year on Dreyer’s birthday, the Carl Th. Dreyer Memorial Fund awards a prize primarily to a young film director, or other artist working in film, in recognition of an outstanding artistic performance. The fund is financed by the annual earnings from Gaumont’s distribution of The Passion of Joan of Arc.”

A press release of today communicates that the prize this year goes to Anders Østergaard (cv according to DFI’s website): Director, born 1965. Graduated from the Danish School of Journalism in 1991 after training at Central Television, London. Worked as a copywriter at an advertising agency and as a researcher on documentary programmes. Awarded Best Documentary at Odense International Film Festival in 1999 for “Troldkarlen”/”The Magus”. Writer-director on the international coproduction “Tintin et moi” (2003), and the documentary about one of Denmark’s most popular rock bands “Gasolin” (2006) which had a successful run at the domestic boxoffice with nearly a quarter million admissions. “Burma VJ” (2008) received an Oscar nomination and has taken home a record-breaking number of international awards, including IDFA’s Joris Ivens and Movies That Matter. Also from 2008 is “Så kort og mærkeligt livet er”, about Danish poet Dan Turèll.

And this comment from me – An obvious choice or the award, Østergaard has developed his own original and playful take on how to treat creatively the past, shown brilliantly through his last work “1989”, shown all over Europe. On top of that he is an excellent and inspiring teacher, who can be strongly recommended to film schools and professional documentary gatherings.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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