ANNOUNCER:
Dear guests, please welcome the President Of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.
PRESIDENT:
Good evening, I think in a famous movie Elisabeth Taylor once said "there is nothing as powerful as a man with an idea".
The honorary awards tonight will be awarded to such a man. An entrepreneur, director, producer, actor, discipliner, trainer, a thinker but above all a genious...which now molds life and enjoyment for millions of people around the world.
An artist which has shown us and the nation that an idea that is born in Iceland can be accepted on the world stage.
He has built the most technically advanced studio of it's type in the world, bringing with him people which has won some of the most famous awards in the movie industry to focus their energy on this Icelandic project. And maybe even beaten Hollywood in professionalism and technical skills.
He created characters, unforgetable to us all and people around the world. Funny and charismatic which now has fans around the world. No Icelandic film project has gotten this much circulation. The viewers are in each week counted in tens of millions and probably even hundreds of millions.
Yes, he is like no other. He has given us an adventure, but also a new believe what can be achieved with creativeness alone. Of course it's like that, he has chosen himself to be the "elf" in this adventure.
It is a profound pleasure to announce tonight that the Honorary awards of the Icelandic Film Academy goes to none other than the Entrepreneur and genious Magnus Scheving."
**APPLAUSE**
Let's look at a few clips from the history of Lazy Town.
VIDEO:
In 1995 Magnus published the best seller book entitled "Áfram Latibær" (Go Lazy Town). In a short space of time, Lazy Town's popularity grewn among the Icelandic youth. Magnus followed upon that popularity with more books, theater shows with record selling attendance and other shows and entertainments over the whole country.
The idea of Lazy Town developed quicky and grew over time. In 2003 the nation watched as a contract was signed with the US TV station Nickelodeon for 40 TV shows of Lazy Town.
Today Lazy Town is shown in 104 countries over the world and are very popular, for example in the UK and South America.
The shows are created in over 5000 square meters studio in Garðabær.
The studio is one of the most technologically advanced in the world, as it's unique in the world that the whole production is done at the same place.
About 150 international group of people work on the show. The show and it's creators have won numerous nominations and awards both here and abroad, for example was Julianna Rose Mauriello nominated for the Emmy awards earlier this year for her work on the show as "Stephanie". The show was also nominated short while ago for the English BAFTA awards as the best international childen's program.
**APPLAUSE**
MAGNUS SCHEVING:
Yeah......thank you very much for that, thanks. Mister President and Academy and Collegues which are here!
Uhm, my wife should really be beside me here, but she is so goregeus that I would look bad. Ragnheiður (her name) is here, she does not want to come on stage, but Ragnheiður this statue (awards) is yours.
Then I would like to talk about all the people behind the scenes. There are so many people which I have gotten to know behind the scenes which nobody mentions. For example people sowing costumes over nights. Set designers or assistance which are under the snow capturing objects when you throw them away. There are carpenter which work day and night so that everything looks great. There are secretaries and there are the people who find kindergarten places for children of the staff of over 40 foreigners which are here. And so on.
There are so many people which are behind a project like this that it would take hours to mention them all. But if I should mention anyone in particular then it would be Tómas Þorvaldsson lawyer..
**APPLAUSE**
Most of you know who he is. I came to Tómas when I only had a little idea but great hops. Tómas listened to me and the most important to me was to keep the franchise of this idea. And he helped me to keep the franchise so I wouldn't lose it...and he did it for free. I only had a hope and to spend his time on a kid. Even when he was very busy. It is very interesting and commendable.
Tómas! Thank you very much!
And it has been a good year for us. We have gotten Emmy nomination, Bafta nomination which will be awarded next week and we are very excited about what will happen there. Also we received the Emil awards in Germany and are very proud of it.
Tags: lazytown magnus scheving
