'WALLS - Akinni Inuk'

Source: Anorak Film

‘WALLS - Akinni Inuk’

EXCLUSIVE: Greenland has made its third-ever submission to the international feature category at the Oscars, with documentary WALLS – Akinni Inuk.

The film was selected by a five-person Oscar committee, chaired by filmmaker AldaRos Olsen Rosing, alongside filmmakers Mads Madsen and Hanne M. Sorensen, and actresses Kimmernaq Kjeldsen and Aka Niviana.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) allows it to submit to the category, along the same rules granted to other autonomous territories including Hong Kong.

WALLS – Akinni Inuk tells the story of two Greenlandic women whose lives become intertwined at a new Greenland prison – Ruth, who is serving a sentence without release date; and film producer Nina who is working on a film about Greenland’s prison system.

The film is directed by Sofie Rordam and Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg, and produced by Emile Hertling Peronard for Greenland and Denmark’s Anorak Film.

Backers include Nordook, the Danish Film Institute, and Eqqumiitsuliornermut Aningaasaateqarfik (the Greenland Arts Fund).

WALLS – Akinni Inuk won the best Nordic documentary prize when it had its world premiere at CPH:DOX earlier this year, before an international premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto. It was nominated for the 2025 Nordic Council Film Prize by Greenland.

It is Greenland’s third submission to the international feature category, after Nuummioq and Inuk for the 2011 and 2013 awards respectively, neither of which were nominated.

“The selection is also about more than just our film,” said Rordam and Skydsbjerg in a statement. ”It’s an illustration of how Greenland is finally claiming its authentic voice in the international world of cinema. And of how our filmmakers are finally having the opportunity to share our stories - from our perspective - with the world.

”Greenland’s film history is only 25 years old, but we have been telling stories for millennia. We’re now taking more steps toward not only political but also narrative sovereignty. And this selection is an important step on that journey.”

”The film is both deep and thought-provoking and challenges our understanding of freedom,” said a statement from the selection committee. ”The subject is serious, but it also offers hope for a better future.”

The submission arrives at a time when Greenland’s political status as a self-governing territory within the sovereign state of Denmark is in focus. US president Donald Trump has made claims that the US should control the territory; the majority of Greenlandic and Danish politicians reject these claims.

A shortlist for the international feature award will be released by AMPAS on December 16, before the nominations announcement on January 22, 2026, and the ceremony on March 15.

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