Oscar Nominee 'Border' Wins Best Film, Best Actress at Sweden's Guldbagge Honors

Ali Abbasi's drama, about two trolls who find love in modern-day Sweden, is an Oscar nominee for best hair and makeup.


Ali Abbasi's genre-bending fantasy tale Border, about gender-fluid trolls living in modern-day Sweden, was the big winner Monday night at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden's leading film honors, picking up five trophies, including for best film.


Based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist (author of the cult vampire fable Let The Right One In), Border draws inspiration from Scandinavian folklore for its tale of two misfits who embrace their otherness.


Eva Melander, almost unrecognizable without the prosthetics and the extra 40 lbs she gained for the lead role in Border, picked up the best actress honor while Finnish co-star Eero Milonoff won best supporting actor. Border also scooped several technical awards, including for a best hair and makeup nod for Goran Lundstrom, Pamela Goldammer and Erica Spetzig. Lundstrom and Goldammer are up for an Oscar this year in the same category.


Reconstructing Utoya, the story of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway, told by four survivors, won the best director award for Carl Javer, as well as the best documentary prize.


Another big winner was Dominik Locher's Goliath, a family drama about a young dad-to-be who tries to make up for feelings of inadequacy by bulking up with bodybuilding and steroids, which won the best actor Guldbagge for star Joakim Sallquist, best screenplay for Peter Gronlund, best editing (Dino Jonsater) and best original score (Johan Testad).


Another Oscar contender, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Japanese drama Shoplifters, won the best foreign film Guldbagge, beating out Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War.


Cold War and Shoplifters go head-to-head at the Oscars next month, where they are both nominees in the best foreign-language film category, alongside frontrunner Roma from Alfonso Cuaron.


Here are the winners of the 2019 Guldbagge Awards:


Best Film


Border, produced by Nina Bisgaard, Piodor Gustafsson and Petra Jonsson


Best Director


Carl Javer for Reconstructing Utoya


Best Actress in a Leading Role


Eva Melander in Border


Best Actor in a Leading Role


Joakim Sallquist in Goliath


Best Actress in a Supporting Role


Lena Nilsson in Videoman


Best Actor in a Supporting Role


Eero Milonoff in Border


Best Screenplay


Peter Gronlund for Goliath


Best Cinematography


Kristoffer Jonsson for Garden Lane


Best Editing


Dino Jonsater for Goliath


Best Costume


Ingrid Sjogren for The Cake General


Best Sound/Sound Design


Christian Holm for Border


Best Makeup


Goran Lundstrom, Pamela Goldammer and Erica Spetzig for Border


Best Original Score


Johan Testad for Goliath


Best Set Design


Ulrika von Vegesack for A Moon of My Own


Best Visual Effects


Peter Hjorth, Mikael Windelinoch Christian Sjostedt for Border


Best Short Film


The Martyr by Ahmed Abdullahi


Best Documentary Film


Reconstructing Utoya by Carl Javer


Best Foreign Film


Shoplifters by Hirokazu Kore-eda