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by Nathaniel R

Since we last discussed the Best International Feature Film four more official submissions have been announced from Egypt, Nepal, Slovakia, and Ukraine which you can read about on those charts (click on the country names) with several more to follow since oft-nominated countries like Spain, Italy, France, and Sweden are all announcing in the next few days. Tonight though, one of my favourite topics: Norway! As longtime readers know I once lived there and was once fluent in Norwegian. Those days are long long gone but I still like to watch Norwegian movies and television and try to turn off the subtitles on occassion.

Norway has announced three finalists for their submission: Let the River Flow, A Happy Day, and Songs of Earth...

Hisham Zaman’s A Happy Day, Ole Giæver’s Let The River Flow and Margreth Olin’s Songs Of Earth have been shortlisted

Hisham Zaman’s A Happy Day, Ole Giæver’s Let The River Flow and Margreth Olin’s Songs Of Earth have been shortlisted to be the Norwegian entry for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

A Happy Day centres around three teenagers longing to escape the refugee camp where they live in north Norway. It had its world premiere in Toronto’s Centrepiece strand and is produced by Zaman’s Snowfall Cinema in co-production with Zentropa Denmark and Rein Film.

The World War Two drama War Sailor — which debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival — swept Norway’s Amanda Awards last night, taking four main awards.

The War Sailor haul included best actor for Pål Sverre Hagen. This is his third Amanda and second consecutive win. Ine Marie Wilmann won the best supporting actress award for portraying Cecilia in the pic.

The film, directed by Norwegian filmmaker Gunnar Vikene, centers on Alfred Garnes, a working-class sailor who has recently become the father of a third child. He and his childhood friend Sigbjørn Kvalen are working on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. They are unarmed civilians on the front lines of a war they never asked to join. The two men struggle for survival in a spiral of violence and death, where German submarines may attack their valuable vessels at any moment.

Key deals for ’Operation Napoleon’, ’The Fox’, ’Let The River Flow’ and ’Diabolik’ films

Germany’s Beta Cinema has agreed a raft of major territory deals for its Cannes slate.

Icelandic thriller Operation Napoleon, starring Iain Glen and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, has sold to Magnolia for North America and Signature Entertainment for UK/Ireland. It has also added Portugal (Pris) and Czech Republic (Bonton Films) to its list of sold territories which already included key territories like France (Mediawan), Spain (Twelve Oaks) and Japan (Tohokushinsha).

The English-language film is about a lawyer drawn into an international conspiracy when falsely accused of a murder.

Ragna Nordhus joins as producer and co-owner, and Gary Cranner as executive producer and advisor.

Elisa Fernanda Pirir’s new Norwegian production company Staer, which launched in January, is already expanding with two new hires.

Both are producers who Pirir formerly worked with at Mer Film. Ragna Nordhus, who had been head of production at Mer Film, is joining Staer as producer and co-owner. Nordhus also co-produced Cannes 2022 Un Certain Regard feature More Than Ever by Emily Atef.

Gary Cranner, a former Screen Future Leaders producer, who also recently worked at Mer and previously ran his own company Chezville, joins Staer as executive producer.

The award comes with 38,000, making it one of the world’s largest film prizes.

Goteborg’s lucrative Dragon Award for best Nordic film has gone to Danish director Malou Reymann’s second feature Unruly.

The drama premiered at Toronto and had its Swedish premiere at Goteborg. TrustNordisk handles sales and the Danish cinema release is planned for spring 2023.

Reymann previously directed Rotterdam Big Screen winner A Perfectly Normal Family.

Unruly is about the Sprogø Women’s Institution in the 1930s, when “morally feeble” girls and women were sent to the island to become more compliant. The story focuses on Maren,...

Dutch-born filmmaker Malou Reymann picked up the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Göteborg Film Festival Saturday evening with her second feature Unruly.

Co-written by Reymann and Sara Isabella Jønsson, the pic follows a teenager in 1930s Denmark who is forced into an institution to treat her rebellious behavior. The story is inspired by real-life events from a notorious women’s institution on the Danish Island of Sprogø.

The film debuted in Toronto last year and went on to play Zurich and the Lithuania Scanorama Film Forum before hitting Göteborg. The Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film comes with a Sek 400 000 cash prize.

The festival jury, headed by Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi, with members including Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl (The Killing), Ukrainian filmmaker Antonio Lukich, and composer Matti Bye described the pic as a story told with “great sensitivity and power.”

“The jury is...

A slew of Sámi TV and film projects are in the works or due for release in 2023. At the North Pitch session at the Tromsø International Film Festival in northern Norway, the variety and quantity of projects in the pipeline was impressive. From the musical “Árru” to the love story “My Reindeerherder;” from documentaries to “Sámi Wedding – A Countdown to Disaster,” a four-part TV comedy, Sámi culture is attracting investment and distribution. Global players like Netflix are already on board with a feature “Stolen,” directed by Elle Márjá Eira due to start filming in the Spring.

This moment hasn’t come out of nowhere, Anna Lajla Utsi, the managing director of the Sámi Film Institute maintains: “It’s a result of many, many years of hard work from both us at the Film Institute, trying to raise the funding, and also creating partnerships with Norwegian broadcaster Nrk Drama, Netflix, Telefilm Canada,...

Fest focus on films by up-and-coming talent from Geman-speaking world.

Max Gleschinski’s Alaska won the top prize in the feature film competition at this year’s Filmfestival Max Ophüls, which was held in Saarbrücken on the German-French border from January 23-29.

Focusing on works by up-and-coming talent from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg, the festival is considered the most important newcomer film festival in the German-speaking world.

Rostock-based Gleschinski’s second feature centres on a 40-something woman who slowly finds her way back into life after nursing her father for 20 years, and falls in love with another woman.

The...

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

Göteborg Film Festival, running from Jan. 27-Feb. 5, will welcome back some familiar faces during its 46th edition. But it keeps on looking out for skillful newcomers, says Josef Kullengård, head of industry at the festival and the Nordic Film Market. “We want to be the place where you discover new Nordic talent,” he tells Variety.

“It’s a strong year for projects in development, while the workin-progress section combines established directors such as Erik Poppe [presenting ‘Quisling’] with first-timers or people like Ulaa Salim, following ‘Sons of Denmark’ with ‘Eternal.’ It definitely mirrors what the current Nordic film landscape looks like.”

Oscar-winning actor Alicia Vikander will also introduce a new wave of directors, unveiling films produced by the students of educational film program Alicia Vikander Film Lab 2022.

“When she was appointed honorary fellow by the Sten A. Olsson Foundation for Research and Culture, her response was: ‘Let’s do something with this money,...