The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, 2009

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her beloved uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and the tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Author Stieg Larsson, who died suddenly in 2004, left behind three unpublished novels, known as the “Millennium” trilogy, which have become a global sensation, elevating Larsson to the world’s second best-selling author last year (behind The Kite Runner’s Khaled Hosseini). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the decade’s major literary success stories, selling over 8,000,000 copies worldwide, and the film adaptation is the highest grossing Swedish film in history and 2009’s highest-grossing European production.

Awards:

2009 Amanda Awards, Norway: Best Foreign Feature Film Nomination; 2009 European Film Awards: Audience Award Nomination, Best Acress – Noomi Rapace Nomination, and Best Composer – Jacob Groth Nomination; 2010 Guldbagge Awards: Audience Award Winner, Best Acress – Noomi Rapace Winner, Best Film Winner, Best Cinematography – Eric Kress Nomination, and Best Supporting Actor – Sven-Bertil Taube Nomination; 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival: Audience Award – Best Narrative Feature Winner;