Beyond, the feature debut of actress-turned-director Pernilla August starring Noomi Rapace has won the Nordic Council Film Prize, Scandinavia’s top cinematic honor. Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, the honorary chair of the film prize jury, announced the winner at a press conference in Denmark Monday. Based on the best-selling, semi-autobiographical novel by Susanna Alakoski, Beyond is the story of a girl growing up in 1970s Sweden to alcoholic parents. In addition to the Nordic Council honor, which will be presented Nov. 2, Beyond has already collected a stocked trophy case of awards, including best director and best supporting actress (for Outi Maenpaa) at Sweden’s equivalent of the Oscars, the Guldbagges, best film and best actress honors at the Sao Paulo film festival and the International Critics’ Week honor at the Venice Film Festival in August.

Great news courtesy Variety. Pernilla August’s directing debut “Beyond” has been selected as the Swedish entry for the Oscars. Set in the present day and the 1970s, the film stars Noomi Rapace in a drama about a woman confronting memories of her troubled childhood. August wrote the script with Lolita Ray, based on the novel by Susanna Alakoski. It premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it won two awards, and has since picked up prizes at several other fests, including Sao Paolo, Lubeck and Hamburg. It was nominated for eight Golden Bugs, Sweden’s national film awards, and won three, including best director for August. August previously won two Golden Bugs as an actress, as well as the best actress prize at Cannes in 1992 for “The Best Intentions.” She is perhaps best known to English-speaking audiences as Anakin Skywalker’s mother in the “Star Wars” movies.

Over 800 DVD screencaptures from Noomi’s most recent theatrical film, “Beyond” (Svinalängorna) have been added to the gallery. The film is available on DVD in Sweden, so be sure to grab your copy, Noomi delivers yet another stunning performance. Enjoy the captures!

A couple of production stills from the first two Millenium parts as well as Beyond have been added. Also, most of the Babycall production stills have been replaced in higher resolution.

The Guldbagge Awards are still being broadcast in Sweden, but the major awards have been given out already. Director Pernilla August has received the prestigious award as Best Director for “Svinalängorna”. with Outi Mäenpää winning Best Supporting Actress. Noomi Rapace was nominated as Best Actress for “Svinalängorna”, but the Guldbagge went to Alicia Vikander for her role as Catherine in “Pure”. So far, no word if Noomi has attended the ceremony. In case she did, be sure to check back for pictures :-)

Swedish actress Pernilla August’s directorial debut “Beyond” has scooped 8 nominations for Sweden’s national film awards, the Guldbagge Awards, which will take place on Jan 24 in Stockholm. Chosen by a jury of 34 members, the film tells the story of a grown-up daughter (played by Noomi Rapace) who is forced to confront her alcoholic mother. It premiered in Venice in 2010 where it won the audience award for best film in critics week. At the Guldbagge Awards, “Beyond” has received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (August), Best Actress (Rapace), Best Supporting Actor (Ville Virtanen), two for Best Supporting Actress (Tehilla Leaf and Outi Mäenpää), Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Congratulations to all of them!

Some amazing on-set pictures of Noomi’s latest Swedish film, “Beyond”, have been added to the gallery. The new uploads are accompanied by public appearances pictures from the “Beyond” photocall in stockholm, the “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” photocall in Amsterdam (January 2010) as well as the “The Girl Who Played with Fire” photocall in Stockholm (September 2009).