Norwegian Exhibitors Vote For Upperdog

February 2, 2010
Sara Johnsen's Upperdog was awarded the ‘Sølvklumpen' award for Best Film this Monday by the Association of Norwegian Cinema Managers (Norske kinosjefers Forbund). This is the first major award for Upperdog. The film produced by Friland Film with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond is competing this week at the Nordic Film competition programme in Göteborg. Bestevenner by Christian Lo was named Best Children's film.

'Sarah Lund' Travels To US

January 26, 2010
US cable network AMC has greenlit a new pilot series based on DR's hit series Forbrydelsen (The Killing), supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.  Sofie Gråbøl (photo) starred as Sarah Lund.

The series of 26 episodes will be produced by Fuse Entertainment in association with Fox Television Studios (FtvS). L.A. based Danish born Mikkel Bondesen brought the project to the US studio and is executive producer with Veena Sud, author of the US adaptation. The US Killing will be set in Seattle. It will chronicle the investigation of a young girl's murder through the perspective of the police, the victim's family and the mayor's office. "It's Prime Suspect meets The Wire," said FtvS executive VP David Madden. Forbrydelsen was nominated for an Emmy award for episodes 1-10 in 2007 and for the following episodes 11-20 in 2008.

New Christoffer Boe On Danish Screens

January 26, 2010
Christoffer Boe's fourth feature film Everything will be Fine (Alting bliver godt igen) is being launched by SF Film on over 30 Danish screens this Thursday. Four years after Offscreen, Boe creates again an enigmatic narrative around the centre figure of a filmmaker. In Everything will be Fine, Jens Albinus plays a filmmaker in search of a good story for his next movie. When he runs over a man who carries an incredible secret, reality suddenly becomes more fascinating than fiction. The thriller was produced by Tine Grew Pfeiffer for Alphaville Pictures Copenhagen, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Sales are handled by The Match Factory.

Click here to see trailer.

 

Eliassen Wins Tromsø Palm

January 26, 2010
Trond Eliassen, (photo) Norwegian filmmaker and co-founder of News on Request, has won the Tromsø Palm for Best Documentary Film in the ‘Films from the North' programme of the Tromsö International Film Festival. The filmmaker gave his cash award (€5,000) to music composer Fred Jonny Berg featuring in his film Breathing Music (Å puste ut musikk). The documentary film will be broadcast on NRK on February 6. The festival's main Aurora award went to Anno Saul‘s German thriller The Door starring Mads Mikkelsen and the FIPRESCI award was given out to the Turkish film 10 to 11.

Easy Money On The Millennium Track

January 26, 2010
Fredrik Wikström (Tre Vänner), the producer of the new Swedish crime phenomena Snabba Cash (Easy Money - number one in its second weekend on Swedish screens with over 281,000 admissions) is going to produce two other films based on Jens Lapidus' best-selling novels.

One of Sweden's most successful contemporary crime novelists, Lapidus sold over 250,000 copies of ‘Easy Money', his first novel part of a ‘Stockholm Noir Trilogy' exploring the Swedish capital's underworld. The sequel to the film Easy Money will feature parts of the first novel that were not used and parts of Lapidus' second novel Never Fuck Up (Aldrig fucka Up) published in 2008. The last instalment will be based on the third book, currently being written.

Director Daniel Espinosa and lead actor Joel Kinnaman have signed up for the upcoming two sequels that will be shot back to back in 2011. For Wikstöm, Easy Money is ‘a modern, realistic and fast paced thriller' with all the ingredients to win over the cinemagoers who loved the Millennium films. "It develops the Swedish crime thriller trend by being more realistic and telling the story from the point of view of the criminals."

Sold by TrustNordisk, Easy Money will screen at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin. The film was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Danish And Norwegian Hits Get Sales Reps

January 26, 2010
The successful feature debuts of Nordic stand up comedians turned directors Anders Matthesen (Sorte Kugler) and Åsleik Engmark (Knerten) have been picked up for world distribution by NonStop Sales and Sola Media respectively. The comedy Sorte Kugler (What goes Around) produced by Nimbus Film, was last year's biggest local hit in Denmark with over 402,000 tickets sold. The children's film Knerten (Twigson) produced by Paradox, was the second most successful Norwegian film of 2009 after Max Manus. The film will compete for the Crystal Bear in Berlin's Generation Kplus section.

Ghost Of Cité Soleil Screening For Haiti

January 26, 2010
Nordisk Film and the Danish Red Cross will be holding a unique fund raising evening in support of Haiti at Copenhagen's Metropole Cinema on February 2, with the screening of Asger Leth's multi-award winning documentary Ghost of Cité Soleil.

Winner in 2008 of a Director's Guild of America Award for Best Documentary, the film opened eyes to the world on the miserable life conditions in the slums of the Haitian capital. Asger's father Jorgen Leth, the world renowned documentary filmmaker who had been living in Haiti since 1991, survived the January 12 earthquake that cost lives to over 150,000 people. His daughter, producer Karoline Leth will attend the charity event in Copenhagen on February 2 to talk about Haiti.

Kiti Luostarinen Honoured At Docpoint

January 19, 2010
The ninth annual DocPoint-Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (January 26-31) is going to hand out its prestigious Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award to Kiti Luostarinen (photo) for her successful career in documentary filmmaking. Luostarinen was twice nominated for a Jussi in 2004 for Kuoleman kasvot (Looking death in the Face) and in 2009 for Palnan tyttäret (Palnan Daughters).

One of the highlights of this year's DocPoint is the New Finnish Documentary Films programme. Fifteen films have been selected by jury members Erkko Lyytinen, Docpoint artistic director, MP Pekka Haavisto, film director Lenka Hellstedt, documentarian Jouni Hiltunen and editor Minna Joenniemi. Those include Pekka Lehto's In the Shadow of a Doubt and Arto Halonen's The Magnetic Man.

During the new industry event DocPoint Encounters (January 28 -29), five Finnish projects will be presented to potential co-financiers and distributors. Those are From Next Door by Tuija Halttunen (Elokas Cooperative), Love is Enough by Mia Halme (Avanton Productions), Once I Dreamt of Life by Jukka Kärkkäinen (Mouka Filmi) Reindeer Spotting by Joonas Neuvonen (Bronson Club) and Red Forest Hotel by Mika Koskinen.

Three Nordic Wins At Palm Springs

January 19, 2010
Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (photo) has won the Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 21^st Palm Springs International Film Festival in the US that closed last Sunday. The Festival's FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film went to Ruben Östlund's Involuntary. Sweden's official Oscar candidate was chosen among 40 of the 65 Foreign Language entries for this year's Academy Awards®. Finland's entry, Letters to Father Jacob by Klaus Härö received the ‘Bridging the Borders' award. All three films were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Swedish Critics Vote For The Girl

January 19, 2010
The 2010 Greta Award for Best Swedish Film was given out by the Swedish Film Critics Association (Svenska Filmkritikerförbundet) to Fredrik Edfeldt's debut film The Girl (Flickan). The Swedish Film critics said in a statement: "Fredrik Edfeldt's debut feature is extremely beautiful thanks to the close creative collaboration with scriptwriter Karin Arrhenius and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema". Produced by ACNE Film, The Girl is also a front runner for this year's Guldbagge awards with four nominations. Last year's Greta Award winner was Involuntary.

 

Fly Tempts Danes With Woman

January 19, 2010
Five years after Manslaughter, the internationally renowned Danish filmmaker Per Fly is introducing his new feature film The Woman who Dreamt of a Man (kvinden der drømte om en mand) to Danish audiences. Nordisk Film is releasing it this Thursday on 31 screens. In 2005 Manslaughter, the last instalment of Fly's successful societal trilogy, was seen by almost 390,000 Danes and received the Nordic Council Film Prize. With Sonja Richter and Michael Nyqvist in the leads, The Woman who Dreamt J.P. was inspired by a poem from JP Jacobsen. The romantic drama was produced by Ib Tardini for Zentropa, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

To see trailer, click here.

Nordic Films In Rotterdam

January 19, 2010
The 39^th Rotterdam International Film festival (January 27-February 7) has invited half a dozen Nordic films and co-productions in its official programme. Denmark's prison drama R running for the VPRO Tiger Award, is spearheading the Nordic line up. It is the feature debut of documentary filmmaker Michael Noer and scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm, both former graduates of the Danish Film School. The drama was produced by René Ezra and Tomas Radoor for Nordisk Film. The Estonian film The Temptation of St Tony, co-produced by Finland's Bronson Club and Sweden's ATMO, is also vying for Rotterdam's top €15,000 award. Two films supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond will screen at the Spectrum sidebar: Iceland's Reykjavik-Rotterdam and Denmark's Valhalla Rising. The Bright Future section described as a ‘platform for filmmakers of the future', will present the international premiere of Finland's Twisted Roots (supported by the Fund) and Sweden's The Ape.

House Of Branching Love Closes Tromsö

January 19, 2010
The Tromsö International Film festival, the largest film festival in Norway (over 48,000 attendees in 2009) will open on January 18 with Russian film Hipsters and close on January 24 with Mika Kaurismäki's Finnish hit The House of Branching Love, platformed at Tromsö ahead of its official premiere in Norway on February 5 (SF Norge). Among the several key note speakers expected at Tromsö is Norway's new Culture Minister Anniken Huitfeldt who will take centre stage on January 19, with Per-Arne Tuftin, Director of Tourism for Innovation Norway, to discuss how the local film industry can contribute to the promotion of Norway. Other special guests announced include Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn who will introduce his latest epic Valhalla Rising to Tromsö audiences this Friday. The film will officially open in Norway on March 19 (Euforia Film).

Snabba Cash Ready To Hit Swedish Screens

January 11, 2010
Nordisk Film is releasing this Friday on Swedish screens Daniel Espinosa's fast-paced thriller Snabba Cash (Easy Money), produced by Tre Vänner, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Set in Stockholm's underworld, the film is based on Jens Lapidus' best-selling eponymous novel. This is the third feature film by the 33 year-old Espinosa after Babylon Disease and Outside Love. The film is sold internationally by TrustNordisk.

Lise Lense Møller Gets Nod At Hollywood PGAs

January 11, 2010
The Danish producer and founder of Magic Hour Films Lise Lense-Møller (photo) has been nominated for the prestigious Producers Guild of America (PGA) annual awards in the Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures category. Lense-Møller is nominated for her film Burma VJ-Report from a Closed Country -supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond - that has received more than 35 international awards and is shortlisted for the 2010 Academy Awards. The PGA awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood on January 24.