Director Martin Zandvliet’s film about a group of German POWs who are made to clear Danish beaches of Nazi mines following World War 2 made the cut from the original list of 85 submissions. 

 

It will compete for the top award at the big Oscars gala in February against ‘A Man Called Ove’ (Sweden), 'The Salesman' (Iran), 'Tanna' (Australia) and 'Toni Erdmann' (Germany).

 

 

Danish films have thrice won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, including back-to-back wins in 1987 and 1988 for ‘Babettes gæstebud’ (Babette’s Feast) and ‘Pelle Erobreren’ (Pelle the Conqueror). The most recent win was in 2010, when Susanne Bier took home the Oscar for ‘Hævnen’ (In a Better World). 

 

The Afghanistan War drama ‘Krigen’ (A War) was a nominee at last year’s Academy Awards but lost out to Hungary’s ‘Son of Saul’. 

 

Denmark will also be represented at this year’s Oscar by none other than Viggo Mortsensen. The Danish-American actor is up for the lead actor award for his performance in ‘Captain Fantastic’, in which he plays a father who raises his six kids in the Pacific Northwest forest and has to confront normal society when his wife dies. 

 

 

The 58-year-old actor, who was born in New York to a Danish father and American mother, was previously nominated for his leading role in the 2007 film ‘Eastern Promises’, a sequel to which will reportedly start filming in the spring.