Cinema of Norway

Cinema of Norway
Ringen kino, a movie theatre in Oslo
No. of screens	422 (2011)
• Per capita	9.6 per 100,000 (2011)
Main distributors	SF Norge 23.0% The Walt Disney Company Nordic 21.0% United International Pictures 17.0%
Produced feature films (2011)
Fictional	31 (88.6%)
Animated	-
Documentary	4 (11.4%)
Number of admissions (2013)
Total	11,802,662
• Per capita	2.3 (2013)
National films	2,690,110 (22.8%)
Gross box office (2013)
Total	NOK 1.1 billion
National films	NOK 222 million (20.3%)

Norway has had a notable cinema industry for some time.

The first film produced domestically in Norway was a short about fishermen, Fiskerlivets farer, dating from 1907. The first feature was released in 1911, produced by Halfman Nobel Roede. In 1931 Tancred Ibsen, grandson of the playwright, presented Norway's first feature-length sound film, Den store barnedåpen ("The Great Christening"). Through the 1930s Ibsen "dominated" the nation's film industry, with Leif Sinding in second place. Ibsen produced conventional melodramas more or less on the model of Hollywood films.

In the early 21st century a few Norwegian film directors have had the opportunity to go to Hollywood to direct various independent films. As of 2011, nearly 900 films had been produced in Norway, with a third of these being made in the last 15 years.

The Norwegian equivalent of the Academy Awards is the Amanda award, which is presented during the annual Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund. The prize was created in 1985. The Amanda award is presented in following categories: Best Norwegian Film, Best Directing, Best Male Actor, Best Female Actress, Best Film for Children and Youth, Best Screenplay, Best Short Film, Best Documentary (however, a documentary can also win the Best Film award), Best Foreign Film and an honorary award.

The documentary Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature at the 24th Academy Awards in 1951. It is the only feature film in Norwegian history to win an Academy Award. In 2006 the Norwegian/Canadian animated short film The Danish Poet, directed by Norwegian Torill Kove and narrated by Norwegian screen legend Liv Ullman, won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and became the second Norwegian production to receive an Academy Award.