Amanda Kernell (Swedish: [ɕæˈɳɛlː];[1] born 9 September 1986) is a Swedish, Southern Sami director and screenwriter.[2] She is best known for the movie Sami Blood, which won several awards.
Amanda Kernell was born in Umeå. In her early teens, she devoted herself to acting and directing within the municipal theater. Her mother is Swedish, but through her father, she developed roots in Sami culture.[3] She has, among other things, worked as a film educator in Västerbotten County,[3] and acted in the film Maison (2007).[4] In the years 2009–2013, Kernell attended and graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in Copenhagen.[5] Kernell resides in Copenhagen,[3] where, in addition to film-making, she also teaches film directing.[5]
Kernell studied writing for the stage and audio visual media at Biskops-Arno where she also completed the Filpool Nord course “Screenwriting for low-budget feature films.” Beginning in 2009, Kernell attended the National Film school of Denmark, being one of the six students they bring in every two years.[6]
In 2004 Amanda Kernell played the role of Lovisa in the short Maison, directed by Ann Holmgren. The story was about a daughter who was trying to connect with her closed off mother. Amanda Kernell's filmographic career began in 2006 when she started directing shorts for the production company The Director & Fabrikorn, including The Holiday Sister, best short at the 2009 BUFF Children and Young Adult Film Festival and To Share Everything which received the 1 km Film Award.[7] Her debut film was her short Our Disco in 2007 which is about her film Northern Great Mountain world premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. This short film was later incorporated into her feature film debut Sami Blood which premiered at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival. She has written the script for every one of her films besides Our Disco. Charter is her second feature film and most recent. Amanda Kernell has been living in Denmark for the last 11 years where she is incorporating herself in Danish lifestyle and sharing that vision in her filming.
Kernell received Best Young Director at the Venice Film Festival 2016 where she also received the Europa cinemas label for best European film. Later that year Sami Blood received Jury's special prize at the Tokyo international film festival. She went on to receive the Nordic film prize at the Gothenburg film festival 2017. In the same year she received Kurt Linder's scholarship from the Swedish film academy. Sami Blood was awarded four Golden Beetles at the Guldbagge gala in 2018 for best screenplay, best actress (lene Cecilia sparrok), best cut (anders skov) and audience award for best film. Kernell received the Dagens Nyheter Culture Prize in 2018 and the Swedish UN association's prize for human rights. In 2020 kernell's film Charter was nominated for Nordic council film prize and the Swedish academy award committee selected it for Sweden's entry for the Oscar for best international film for 2021 oscars. In December 2020 charter was nominated for guldbaggegalan 2021 in seven categories: best film, best director, best screenplay, best actress (ane dahl torp), best supporting actor (sverrir gudnason), best photo and best film design (sabine hviid).
Kernell states that "In my films, I always deal with topics such as forgiveness, responsibility, and betrayal."[8] She tends to use close up shots and put a lot of the emphasis of the story on the actors. She prefers a "minimalistic form when shooting films, with camerawork that gets up close to characters and avoid overloading the movie with the decor or setting."[8] Kernell believes that by doing this she will help the audience feel less lonely. Kernell loves to delve into the histories of her stories and incorporate how past events have their effects on society today. In Sami Blood she cast family members as extras because she believes it important that filmmakers tell their own stories.[6]
Kernell makes a point of representing her fear through the story of Charter. She explored the experience of what it would be like to be a single mother of divorce and fighting for custody over a child.[9]
Kernell experienced two very different cultures growing up with divorced parents with her mother being Swedish and her father being Sami. Her grandparents were nomadic reindeer herding families and only spoke Sami. They were only assimilated into the Swedish society once they went to residential schools in Sweden.[10]
