Guldbagge Awards
The Guldbagge Award (Swedish: Guldbaggen) is an official Swedish film award awarded annually since 1964 by the Swedish Film Institute.
Etymology
Guldbagge is the Swedish name for Cetonia aurata, a beetle also known as rose chafer. The name of the award could also be interpreted as a play on the Swedish word skalbagge, which means beetle. The compound part skal, (meaning carapace or shell), has in the name Guldbagge been changed into guld (gold), giving the award a name that could be roughly translated into Golden Beetle or Golden Scarab.
Categories
The award is given out to the best film-related efforts in the following categories:
- Best Film (List of Guldbagge Award winners for Best Swedish Film)
- Best Directing
- Best Screenplay
- Best Cinematography
- Best Actress in a leading role
- Best Actor in a leading role
- Best Supporting actress
- Best Supporting actor
- 3 X Best Achievement - Three awards are given for technical efforts without their own category, such as original music, costume design etc.
- Best Foreign Film (In which the country of production, not the language of the film, is what makes the film a potential nominee)
- Best Short film
- Best Documentary
- Honorary Award
Description
The prize itself, a small statue in the shape of a beetle, is made from copper which is enamelled and gilded. It was designed by the artist Karl Axel Pehrson. An inscription of the name of the award's winner, and the category in question, is glued to the underside of the beetle.
Criticism
In early 2005, the award received some criticism, since only three of the 33 Swedish feature films that premiered in 2004 received nominations in seven main categories (film, direction, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, screenplay) and it was made public that some of the jury members had not seen all 33 films.