On the 25th of February the Danish film industry is holding its breath, it is in for a couple of Academy Awards and one of these just might go to the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest host, Søren Pilmark.

Søren’s film Helmer & Son is nominated in the category “Best Short Film”. It is the first film the Danish actor has ever directed so an Oscar wasn’t exactly the plan. In fact Søren didn’t even know that it would be tried. Kim Magnusson, managing director of Nordisk Film, explains to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet how he went to the United States to try to get the film shown in cinemas over there- a prerequisite in order to be nominated for the famous Oscar statuette: “It hadn’t been shown anywhere else and not even Søren knew that I was there”.

Kim Magnusson’s project worked, the 12 minutes long film about a son being called to the rest home as his father has locked himself inside an armoire, got nominated. While it is Søren’s first Academy Award nomination, Kim has tried it three times before and won it once, in 1998 with the film Valgaften(Election Night).

Søren Pilmark hosted the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest held in Copenhagen together with Natasha Crone. Terry Wogan, the famous BBC commentator, had called them Dr. Death and the Tooth Fairy and was asked for an apology by the DR. Terry Wogan is famous for his sometimes-nasty comments, but he had never before had to give an official apology and Wogan himself will never forget this episode. He is still referring to Denmark as a country he cannot visit without wearing a plastic bag over his head unless he wants to be publicly executed.