Facebook Against Iron Sky

February 4, 2010
The Facebook page of Finnish sci-fi spoof movie Iron Sky has been closed down - without warning - by the US social networking administration on the basis that the film is "hateful, threatening or obscene".

The comedy is about Nazis on the Moon, coming back to invade Earth in 2018. "Iron Sky is far from a pro-Nazi movie. It's a comedy about Nazis living on the Moon", commented producer Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures). "I wonder when they are going to close down the page of Inglourious Basterds. Or Sound of Music, for that matter.

"I really hope we'll get the page back up and running soon, since the production is starting in the spring and we have a lot of interesting materials lined up for the fans. Luckily Facebook is not the only place on the net where we keep in contact with our fan base," said director Timo Vuorensola. The Finnish-German co-production was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

 

Glowing Stars Shine In Göteborg

February 2, 2010
Lisa Siwe's drama Glowing Stars (I taket lyser stjärnorna) was awarded the SEK50,000 Göteborg Film Award last Friday during the opening ceremony of the 33^rd Göteborg International Film Festival. The Göteborg Film Award is given away to the winner among Swedish films nominated for Best Film at the Guldbagge awards. Glowing Stars was preferred by the City of Göteborg to this year's Guldbagge winner The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Siwe's directorial drama was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Mikael Kamber New DR Media Director

February 2, 2010
The experienced Danish journalist and media executive Mikael Kamber (photo) has been appointed Media Director at the Danish broadcasting corporation DR. He takes over a position previously held by Lars Grarup, who resigned last November as part of the TV station's overall restructuring plan. Kamber's most recent position was managing director for the local newspaper JydskeVestkysten, a job he held for the last three years. As Media Director for DR, he will oversee all programmes sent on DR's TV and radio networks. He will sit on the company's Board alongside General Director Kenneth Plummer, Head of Finance and Human Resources David Hellemann, Technology & Services Director Peter Andersen, News Director Ulrik Haagerup, Communication Director Gitte Rabøl, Culture Director Morten Hesseldahl and Head of DR Danmark Inger Bach.

 

Bananas Picked Up By US Oscilloscope

February 2, 2010
The Swedish documentary film Bananas! by Fredrik Gertten has been picked up for US distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories, according to producer Margarete Jangärd (WG Film). Bananas! was released in Sweden last autumn and will open next in the UK through Dogwoof Films. The film supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond will also screen at the 60^th Berlinale as part of its Culinary Cinema programme.

Zentropa's Red Chapel Converts Sundance Jury

February 2, 2010
Mads Brügger's documentary film The Red Chapel (Det Røde Kapel) won the World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. The 90 minute documentary film is based on Brügger's TV series that was broadcast on DR2 in 2007. In 2006, the reporter and two comics (both adopted from South Korea as infants) travelled to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge the hermetically sealed North Korea. The documentary film version produced by Zentropa's Rambuk with co-financing from DR and Film i Väst had already received the Best Nordic Documentary Award at the Nordisk Panorama Festival in Reykjavik.

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.