Checkered Ninja 2 and docs School Shooters and The Choir receive support

Production Support

Feature film 

• Checkered Ninja 2 (Ternet Ninja 2)
  Grant: NOK 1.5 million
  Recipient: A Film Production, Denmark
  Producer: Anders Mastrup, Trine Heidegaard
  Directors: Anders Matthesen, Thorbjørn Christoffersen
  Domestic distribution: Nordisk Film
  Premiere: October 7, 2021
  Story: The sequel to last year’s blockbuster Danish animated film Checkered Ninja (946,000 admissions in Denmark) is based on Anders Matthesen’s best-selling children’s book of the same name published in June 2019.
  
  We follow again the teenage boy Alex and his doll Checkered Ninja on a frantic hunt for the villain Phillip Eberfrø who has managed to escape from jail in Thailand. As the two embark on a dangerous mission, together with Alex’s entire family, their friendship sometimes comes under intense pressure. 
  
  Co-producer Trine Heidegaard says the follow-up film has two central themes: firstly, what matters is not what you look like but what you have inside. Secondly, whereas Checkered Ninja believes the end justifies the means, Alex teaches his doll that what is most important is the process, as well as friendship and being a decent person. 
  
  The animated film is co-produced by Sudoku and Pop Up Production, with support from the Danish Film Institute. 
  
  

Documentaries

• School Shooters (working title)
  Grant: NOK 600,000
  Recipient: Final Cut for Real, Denmark
  Producer: Anne Köhncke
  Directors: Frida Barkfors, Lasse Barkfors
  Premiere: 2020
  Story: The film is the third instalment in Frida & Lasse Barkfors’ trilogy on social stigma (after the acclaimed Pervert Park and Death of a Child), examining guilt and shame. We meet parents from different areas in the US with different backgrounds and experiences, but who have one thing in common: they have a child who has committed a school shooting.

• The Choir (Kören)
  Grant: NOK 450,000
  Recipient: Mantaray Film, Sweden
  Producer: Stina Gardell
  Director: Amanda Pesikan
  Expected premiere: Spring 2020
  World sales: East Village Entertainment, New York
  Story: The film about a gospel choir in one of the world’s most secular countries raises questions about people’s need for togetherness and spirituality. It follows Cedwin, leader of the Tensta Gospel Choir as he loses his grip on choir members.

Distribution Support

• NOK 60,000 to Another World Entertainment for the release in Norway of the Icelandic film Let Me Fall.
• NOK 60,000 to Another World Entertainment for the release in Denmark of the Icelandic film Let Me Fall.
• NOK 400,000 in slate support to Øst for Paradis for the release in Denmark of A White, White Day, Beware of Children and a third film tbc.

Film Cultural Initiative Support

• NOK 90,000 to Brancheklubben for film og Mediekomponister towards their Harpa Nordic Film Music Days initiative in Berlin.