TORINO, ITALY. The 2022 Semiramis Award for Excellence in Casting was presented at the prestigious Torino Film Festival on 26th November.
The Award was handed out to Norwegian casting director Kjersti Paulsen for The Innocents by Eskil Vogt (2021). The film has already won numerous awards, including the Danish Film Awards (Robert) for Best Non-English Language Film and and three Amanda Awards in Norway. It was also nominated for the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes Film Festival.
The award was presented to Kjersti at Torino Film Festival on 26th November 2022 by well-known director, actor and writer Marco D’Amore.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Lilia Hartmann-Trapani, Francesco Vedovati, Barbara Giordiani, Lana Veenker and Timka Grin for organising this year’s award ceremony at Torino Film Festival. We would also like to thank Spotlight and the Italian Union of Casting Directors (UICD) for their partnership, without which our programme in Torino would not have been possible. Thank you also to this year’s award committee: Florentina Bratfanof, Jeanette Klintberg, Aleta Chappelle, Ellen Michelsen, Sara Törnkvist, Nancy Bishop, Maurilio Mangano, Ulrike Müller, Magdalena Szwarcbart, Cassandra Han, Beatrice Kruger, Kristina Kolytė and Jantsu Puumalainen.




The five 2022 finalists were chosen out of 19 contenders by a jury consisting of select ICDN members. This year, they were:
- Kjersti Paulsen – NORWAY – THE INNOCENTS (2021) by Eskil Vogt
- Constance Demontoy – FRANCE – RISE (EN CORPS) (2022) by Cedric Klapisch
- An Dorthe Braker – GERMANY – FABIAN – GOING TO THE DOGS (2021) by Dominik Graf
- Catrin Wideryd – SWEDEN – COMEDY QUEEN (2022) by Sanna Lenken
- Deborah Aquila, Lisa Zagoria, Tricia Wood, Co-Casting: Lisa Lobel, Angela Peri – USA – CODA by Sian Heder (2021)
Congratulations to the winner and nominees!
The ICDN Best Casting Award was established in 2016, and renamed Semiramis Award in 2020. The ICDN’s purpose in creating this award was to shine a light on the pivotal role that casting directors play in the creative process of filmmaking. Read more about our award here.