Winners – Nordisk Panorama Film Festival 2025
After six days filled with inspiring films and exciting interactions, we are proud to present this year’s winning films of Nordisk Panorama Film Festival.
Out of the 57 films selected for the competition programme, 5 have been awarded in the different prize categories. In addition, two films have received honourable mentions for their outstanding contributions. And we announce this year’s recipient of the Nordic Documentary Producer Award.
Keep reading for the full list of winners.
Best Nordic Documentary
Only on Earth by Robin Petré
Only on Earth (Only on Earth), Robin Petré, 93 min, Denmark/Spain, 2025
Motivation
“We are living in a world on fire that keeps burning in front of our eyes.
We use cinema for reflection of our reality and we would like to highlight the film that captures not only the ongoing environmental grief and also finds the resistant and compelling characters that keep fighting in this deeply immersive, cinematic journey. A film that took us beyond the fire.
The Award goes to Only on Earth by Robin Petré”
Synopsis
An immersive, visually striking journey deep into southern Galicia, one of Europe’s most vulnerable forest fire zones, where wild horses have curbed flammable undergrowth for centuries under the watch of local cowboys. During the hottest summer ever measured, humans and animals alike struggle to cope as inextinguishable fires draw closer.
About the Director
Robin Petré (1985, Denmark) is a Danish film director and artist. In her work she explores human-animal relations and our co-existence with nature. Her feature-length debut From the Wild Sea (2021) premiered at the Berlinale and received the Grand Prix at Global Science Film Festival among other awards. The film was nominated for the Danish Film Critics Award and has screened at festivals such as Zürich Film Festival, Krakow Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, CPH:DOX, and True/False. Her short film Pulse (2016) was awarded the Silver Dove for An Outstanding Artistic Contribution at DOK Leipzig. She holds an MA in Documentary Film Directing from Doc Nomads. She’s an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Sundance Institute, Nordic Film Lab, and IDFAcademy. Only on Earth (2025) celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale. The film previously received the Cannes Marché du Film Docs-in-Progress Award 2024.
About the Award
The Best Nordic Documentary Award is presented to one of the 12 films selected for the competition. The award goes to the director(-s) of the winning film.
Prize
The cash award of 11.000€ is sponsored by the Nordic public broadcasters DR, NRK, RUV, SVT and YLE.
Honourable Mention
Teenage Life Interrupted by Åse Svenheim Drivenes
Teenage Life Interrupted (Uten synlige tegn), Åse Svenheim Drivenes, 91 min, Norway, 2025
Motivation
“Our world brings new challenges every day. One of them is the mental health of the young adults, surrounded by many forms of anxieties. We would like to spotlight the film that uses clear structures and brings the important theme on surface through the characters that are trying hard to see the invisible.
The Honourable Mention goes to Teenage Life Interrupted by Åse Svenheim Drivenes”
Synopsis
Never before have so many children and young people suffered from unexplained symptoms. No medical conditions can explain their state. Two doctors at the University Hospital in Tromsø specialise in treating the undiagnosable. A story from inside the hospital following the treatment of four teenage girls whose life has been put on hold by illnesses no one can explain.
About the director
Åse Svenheim Drivenes (1977, Norway) is a Norwegian documentary filmmaker. Her work includes the award winning documentary I am Kuba (2014), Maiko: Dancing child (2015) and Our man in Kirkenes (2010). Her films have been screened at several prestigious film festivals such as Göteborg Filmfestival, L.A Filmfest and IDFA. Teenage Life Interrupted premiered at Tromsø International Filmfestival in January, 2025, and won the Tromsø Palm for Best Feature. The film runs as a series on Norwegian TV 2 and has already been seen by over 700.000.
Best Nordic Short Film
O by Rúnar Rúnarsson
O (O), Rúnar Rúnarsson, Iceland/Sweden, 20 min, 2024
Motivation
“Carried by an impressive acting performance, the winning film drew us in from the start with its sensitive cinematography that manages to be close to the film’s main protagonist without exploiting or judging his fragility. Deceivingly simple in its structure, the film lays bare the complex reality that addiction is not something you can overcome by pure will, but is a disease that might just not be curable. The award goes to O by Rúnar Rúnarsson.”
About the director
Rúnar Rúnarsson (1977, Iceland) is an Icelandic screenwriter and director and his feature career started in 2011 when he presented his debut film Volcano at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The film received 17 international awards in a vast number of festivals. His second feature Sparrows (2015) also had an impressive festival run, with 20 international awards, including La Concha Ora, the main prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Four years later, after being selected for the Cannes Atelier, his third feature film Echo premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and won six international awards. His most recent film When the Light Breaks was the Opening Film for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.
Alongside those feature films, Rúnar Rúnarsson has also been acclaimed for his shorts. The crossroads trilogy The Last Farm (Oscar® nomination in 2006), 2 Birds (Cannes Official Selection and European Film Awards nomination in 2008) and Anna (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) have received over 100 international awards. O premiered in the Orizontti Cort competition at the Venice Film Festival 2024.
About the award
The Best Nordic Short Film Award is presented to one of the 20 films selected for the competition. The award goes to the director(-s) of the winning film. The prize-winning film may be eligible to submit for The Academy Awards consideration in the Short Film category.
Prize
The cash award of 5.000€ is sponsored by the associations of Danish Film Directors and Swedish Film Directors.
Honourable Mention
I Felt I Had to Be Here by Sara Selmer Moland
I Felt I Had to Be Here (Jeg følte jeg måtte være her), Sara Selmer Moland, 29 min, Norway, 2024
Motivation
“An Honourable Mention goes to a short film whose director doesn’t shy away from unconventional editing choices without ever losing its focus: that even in an increasingly egocentric society what matters is the solace we find in togetherness. The Honourable Mention goes to… I felt I Had to Be Here by Sara Selmer Moland.”
About the director
Sara Selmer Moland (1995, Norway) is a Norwegian director, born and raised in Oslo. After a year at the European Film College, she found directing to be her path within storytelling. She has worked as a casting director, assistant director for television and film, as well as a commercial director, all while making short films, before enrolling at the Norwegian Film School.
About the jury
New Nordic Voice Award
Pay Day by Päivi Hirsiaho
Pay Day (Palkkapäivä), Päivi Hirsiaho, 11 min, Finland, 2024
Motivation
“The New Nordic Voice Award goes to a director with a strong auteurial vision and an original stylistic approach in a piercing film that pulls no punches, telling a humane, relatable and darkly humorous story about how our habits imposed by the society turn into obsessions that consume us. The award goes to Pay Day by Päivi Hirsiaho.”
About the director
Päivi Hirsiaho (b. 1987, Finland) is a visual artist and animator based in Tampere, Finland. Working with hand-crafted animation, drawing, sound and photography, she explores self-portraiture, the intersections of human and animal identity, and the ways in which nature and environment shape perception.
Hirsiaho’s projects include award-winning animations such as You’re lost little girl, which received the main prize in the animation category at the Helsinki Short Film Festival (2015). Pay Day (2024), has recently been exhibited at Kulttuuritalo Laikku in Tampere.
About the award
The New Nordic Voice competition introduces promising Nordic filmmakers whose work are among their first releases or filmmakers who have shifted their filmmaking format. This year 14 films compete for the New Nordic Voice Award, which is awarded to the director(-s) of the winning film.
Prize
The cash award of 5.000€ is sponsored by Film i Skåne.
Young Nordic Award
Poor Me by Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad
Poor Me (Stakkars Meg), Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad, 20 min, Norway, 2025
Synopsis
Nora (15) is caught shoplifting, sparking a major argument with her parents about family values. When all blame falls on her, she pressures her younger sister, Amalie (11), to confess to her part in the stealing. But on Christmas Eve, they find out they are not the only thieves in the family.
About the director
Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad (1990, Norway) is an award-winning director and screenwriter. Liv made her debut in long format with her web series Nudes (2019) for Norwegian broadcaster NRK. The series won two Norwegian TV awards. Her short film My Sister (2017) won the Amanda Award for Best Short Film in Norway and travelled festivals such as Busan Int FF, The Norwegian Short FF, Bergen Int FF and toured around Europe with Le Académie Des César Tour.
About the award
The 13 films in the Young Nordic Award compete for the love of our most critical viewers. We ask our youngest festival audience to tell us which film they like the best and award the winning director(-s) with the Young Nordic Award.
Prize
The cash award of 1.500€ is sponsored by Nordisk Panorama Film Festival.
City of Malmö’s Audience Award
Yalla Parkour by Areeb Zuaiter
Yalla Parkour (Yalla Parkour), Areeb Zuaiter, 89 min, Sweden/Qatar/Saudi Arabia, 2024
Synopsis
In her relentless pursuit of a memory that reinforces her sense of belonging, Areeb crosses paths with Ahmed, a parkour athlete in Gaza, sparking a journey where conflicting aspirations intersect. Nostalgia meets with ambition, and the weight of a confined past meets with an unpredictable future.
About the director
Areeb Zuaiter (1980, Palestine) is a multinational filmmaker based in Washington, D.C. Her work focuses on art, identity, and social issues. She holds an MA in Film and Video from American University. Zuaiter’s work had won multiple international awards. Her debut short, Stained, won the Jury Award at Beirut’s European International Film Festival. Her documentary, Colors of Resistance, was nominated for Sony’s Outstanding Thesis Award and won multiple awards at the Colorado Activism Film Festival and the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards. Zuaiter had previously worked at the Associated Press, and served a Goldman Sachs Film and Video Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Zuaiter lead the Regional Training Department at the Royal Film Commission – Jordan, and taught at several universities in Washington, DC. In addition to working on her films, Zuaiter heads the Programming Department at the Amman International Film Festival (AIFF).
About the award
To receive the City of Malmö’s Audience Award at Nordisk Panorama Film Festival is among the finest appreciations a filmmaker can get. The audience can vote for any of the Nordic short films and documentaries competing in the main competition programmes. The award goes to the director(-s) of the winning film.
Prize
The cash award of 2.500€ is sponsored by the City of Malmö.
Nordic Documentary Producer Award
Hanna Björk Valsdóttir, Iceland
Motivation
“This ambitious producer pushes creative boundaries while championing the directors the producer works with. We salute the producer’s long-standing commitment to artistic and visionary documentaries that attract international recognition. Making documentaries is never easy — and even less so in the conditions of the producer’s country — yet this committed professional persists with courage and artistry. The award goes to Hanna Björk Valsdóttir.”
About the producer
Hanna Björk Valsdóttir (1976, Iceland) is a producer and director specializing in creative documentaries, with an MA in Media, Culture and Communications from NYU and BA in English literature from The University of Iceland. As producer, she is a two-time recipient of the Icelandic Film Award for Best documentary. Her first production Dreamland (2009) premiered in competition at IDFA. Previously working for Ground Control Productions in Reykjavík she started her own production company, Akkeri Films, in 2015. The first feature- length releases were DIVE: rituals in water (2019) and The Last Autumn (2019). Her latest documentaries include the co-production Bogancloch (2024) by Ben Rivers which premiered in competition at Locarno and The Ground Beneath Our Feet by Yrsa Roca Fannberg (2025) which premiered in competition at CPH:DOX.
About the award
The Nordic Documentary Producer Award is given to a producer whose leadership, courage and willingness to take risks has helped ensure the development of emerging talents and advanced the documentary as an art form.
Each Nordic directors’ associations has nominated a singular outstanding producer for the award.
Prize
The cash award of 10.000€ is sponsored by Danish Producers’ Association, Virke Norwegian Producers Association, Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI), Filmproducenternas Rättighetsförening (FRF), and the Icelandic Filmmakers Association.