Kon-Tiki directors Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg may join Academy

OHMYGOSSIP — The Norwegian director duo best known for their most recent film Kon-Tiki have been invited to join the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes for winners of the annual Academy Awards. They’re reportedly the first Norwegians invited to join the Academy since actress Liv Ullmann in the 1970s.

Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg got a lot of attention when their film “Kon-Tiki” was nominated for an Academy Award. Now they’ve been invited to join the Academy itself, Aftenposten reported.

Rønning and Sandberg already had achieved box office success at home in Norway for their popular film Max Manus, about the World War II resistance hero.

Their dramatization of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s famous Kon-Tiki expedition won good reviews both in Norway and in the US, and the two directors have since moved on to their biggest project yet, the latest sequel of the film series Pirates of the Caribbean starring Johnny Depp. It will be another major production for Disney, and both Rønning and Sandberg were in Los Angeles this week making preparations before filming begins.

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