Olaf Award for Cinematic Excellence

The Olaf Award for Cinematic Excellence is an annual award presented by the Royal Board of Film Critics for the best cinematic work released in St Olaf. It has been awarded 92 times since 1925. It is awarded every final Saturday in March.

History
King Haakon I created the award under its current name in 1925. The monarchy was in charge of the release of cinematic works in St Olaf since the creation of the country in 1923. He was known for particularly retrospectively obscure films, in particularly films from Asia and Europe.

Since its inception there have been four nominations for the award with 20 board members casting a vote, in case of ex aequo repeating the process until a winner was determined. The longest this took in a single occasion was five voting rounds for the award of 1970.

The award remained in the hands of the monarchy until the transitioning into a republic, when the government appointed the Ministry of Culture to oversee the award. With the change of management came a change of perspective. The Republic of St. Olaf abided with a more popular selection of releases, making the nominations predominantly Americanised. A particular amount of winning films were in the lowbrow western and action genres.

The radically conservative Kistendemokatene government of the late 70s and early 80s sought to sell the responsibility of the award to corporate clients claiming 'cinematic achievement is not the responsibility of the government'. The rights to the award were sold in 1981 to Wideoteq, a dealer in the national equivalent to the VHS, the OSC (Olaf Standard Cassette). This change of hands foresaw a streak of controversial nominations as well as winners with the press dubbing it the 'OSC Generation Diploma' further questioning the legitimacy and reputation of the award. Criticism came to a climax when the controversial film "Nekromantik" was nominated for 1988.

The award returned into the hands of the government for its 75th anniversary in 1998 thanks to Abejdespati policy claiming its historic importance as a monument to the nation. The government awarded the responsibility to the Olaf Board of Film Censors, which had been created in 1990 and had sought the rights to the award ever since. The board was in charge until it was disbanded in 2014. During the 1998-2014 era the winners were predominantly independent works.

Queen Astrid I appointed the award to the newly founded Royal Board of Film Critics in 2014, which is set to select the nominees and winner for the first time in 2015.

Many early winners have a sole existing copy in the Bioyavmuseum in Gafloofen, with digitalisation and restoration in progress as of 2014. Every winning production has been nominated for preservation in the Bioyavmuseum for its cultural significance to the country.

The announcement of the award has been broadcast on television since 1929. It was commercialised from 1962 on by public broadcaster SOUT accompanying the announcement with a further selection of variety performance. The broadcast was moved to USvT in 1982 when Wideoteq hosted the occasion and the award would not return to SOUT until 1999. As of 2015 the announcement will be broadcast on TV1 St Olaf.

Two anniversary editions have been held. The first was held in 1974 for the award's 50th anniversary, awarding the best cinematic work of 1923. The award was won by In Search of a Thrill. The second was held in 1999 for the award's 75th anniversary, awarding the best winning film of the 75 previous editions. The award was won by 1983 winner Curtains.