The comedy drama Chemo Brain (Kemohjerne) is the first serial format for writer/director Håskjold, a Super16 graduate and winner of Best Narrative Short at SXSW in 2017 for Forever Now.

Co-written with Johan Wang, the 5x10’ series follows the 28 year-old student Oliver whose life is turned upside down when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer. Outside the hospital, his friends move on as if nothing has happened while Oliver is forced to put his life on hold as the medicine, treatments and his own mortality become a new reality.

In the lead roles are Adam Ild Rohweder (When the Dust Settles, The Shamer’s Daughter), Karoline Brygmann (Somethin’s Rocking), Mathilde Passer (Follow the Money), Mads Reuther (Ride Upon the Storm), Ditte Gråbøl (The Protectors) and Jens Jørn Spottag (Daniel, The New Nurses). 

Produced by Nadja Nørgaard Kristensen for Splay One (part of Nent Group) and TV2 Play, the series was launched on the Danish streamer October 19, 2019 in conjunction with Denmark’s Cancer Week. 

Commenting on the Sundance selection, Splay One Denmark’s Jacob Ringsing Gallaus told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “This [selection] is very exciting for us. Chemo Brain is our first fiction project, and we are of course very proud. This is a great recognition of the whole team behind Chemo Brain, but also for all the people at Splay One. We have our own ideas on how to tell stories and how to reach the audience. To be selected for the Sundance Film Festival is huge and tells us to keep doing things our way.”

Chemo Brain will have its international premiere at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival (January 23-February 2, 2020) alongside five US, one Canadian and a French indie series. 

The prestigious US independent Film festival has also announced the list of international shorts part of the programme. Those include the fiction shorts Are You Hungry (Finland) by Teemu Niukkanen, which had its world premiere in Toronto (sold by New Europe Film Sales), Former Cult Member Hears Music For the First Time (Norway/US), by Kristoffer Borgli (Drib), and the Norwegian animated Farce by Robin Jensen, awarded earlier Best Director at Fantastic Fest’s Short With Legs.

A total of 74 shorts were picked from a record 10,397 submissions. 

As mentioned earlier, Amanda Kernell's film Charter has been selected for the World Cinema Dramatic competition,  Emma Sullivan's Into the Deep and Benjamin Ree's The Painter and the Thief for the World Cinema Documentary competition, while Levan Akin's And Then We Danced will screen at the festival's Spotlight section. 

For further information on the Sundance Film Festival, check: www.sundance.org