Best Picture honours for first 'Millennium' thriller

A movie based on the first book of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling “Millennium” trilogy took home top honours at the Swedish film awards on Monday night, scooping up three awards, including best picture and best actress.

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“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said actress Noomi Rapace in her succinct acceptance speech after receiving Best Actress honours for playing “Millennium” hacker-heroine Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor).

The film, which has so far grossed over 114 million kronor in Sweden ($15.6 million) since its release in February 2009, also picked up the Audience Award (Biopublikens pris), given to the movie which receives the most votes from Swedish movie fans in an online poll run by the Swedish Film Institute.

It was the first time that one film received both the ‘Golden Beetle’ (Guldbagge) award for Best Picture honours and the Audience Award.

Two other films also took home multiple Guldbagge awards.

Lisa Siwe’s directorial debut, Glowing Stars (I taket lyser stjärnorna), earned the Gothenburg native Best Director honours.

Based on a 2003 novel by Johanna Thydell, the film is a coming of age story about Jenna, a young girl who struggles to find friendship after her mother is diagnosed with cancer.

In addition, Glowing Stars co-star Anki Lidén took home the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Jenna’s grandmother Ingrid.

Best supporting actor honours went to Swedish veteran Kjell Bergqvist for his role as Jonny in The Wedding Photographer (Bröllopsfotografen), a comedy about an unemployed paper mill worker from the country who finds himself mixing with the Stockholm elite after going into business as a wedding photographer.

The screenplay by Ulf Malmros, who also directed The Wedding Photographer, earned him the Guldbagge for Best Screenplay.

The award for Best Actor went to Claes Ljungmark for his portrayal of Sven-Erik in A Rational Solution (Det enda rationella), a tragicomic drama about a church-going paper mill worker who falls in love with the wife of his best friend, Sven-Erik.

The award for Best Cinematography went to Hoyte van Hoytema for his work on The Girl (Flickan), while German war drama Das weiße Band (The White Ribbon), picked up the award for Best Foreign Language Film.