Silver Shells to Amanda Kernell and Asta Kamma August

The international success of Brace Your Heart and director Amanda Kernell continues as she receives the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Swedish actress Asta Kamma August was also awarded the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance for Hans Petter Moland’s Growth of the Soil. Kernell and August received their respective awards tonight at the festival’s Closing Gala.

Brace Your Heart received the Jury’s Special Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last week. The film continued its strong international festival run in San Sebastián, where Amanda Kernell was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Director. The award was presented by the Official Selection Jury, chaired by director and screenwriter Ira Sachs, with Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård among its members.

Brace Your Heart, one of 17 films competing in the Official Selection, alongside titles including Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, Pablo Larraín’s My Sad Dead and Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, which received the Golden Shell.

In a remote Sámi village high in the mountains, 20-year-old Ejva inherits her late father's reindeer herd. As she struggles to keep the herd thriving, local leader Heaika develops romantic feelings for her, and though hesitant, she feels compelled to accept. But everything changes when Nejla, Heaika’s cousin, arrives, and Ejva discovers true love for the first time. Betrayed and jealous, Heaika reacts harshly, leaving Ejva with a condition that makes her hands shake uncontrollably, threatening her ability to care for the herd. Now, Ejva must find a way to reclaim control over her life and her future.

Brace Your Heart, with the Sámi original title Garrat du Váimmu and the Swedish title Gör hjärtat hårt, is written and directed by Amanda Kernell and produced by Eva Åkergren for Nordisk Film Production. Co-producers include, among others, SVT, Filmpool Nord, Film i Väst and the Sámi production company Forest People, with support from the International Sámi Film Institute and the Swedish Film Institute's former film commissioner Anders Nylander, among others.

Nordisk Film is the film's Swedish distributor, while international sales are handled by TrustNordisk.

Swedish actress Asta Kamma August was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance for Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Growth of the Soil. The film reunites August with Herbert Nordrum, who previously played a couple in Ernst De Geer’s Guldbagge-winning The Hypnosis (2024).

Asta Kamma August is the first Swedish actor to receive the award for Best Leading Performance since the category was introduced in 2021, replacing the separate awards for Best Actress and Best Actor. Max von Sydow previously received an acting honour at the festival, when he was presented with the Donostia Award in 2006.

Growth of the Soil also received the Jury Prize for Best Cinematography and has been selected as Norway’s entry for the Academy Awards.

Read more about all the winners at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.