Pernilla August’ upcoming period drama The Serious Game based on a script by Lone Scherfig is one of three films that received production support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s March round of support. The love story adapted from Hjalmar Söderberg’s best-selling novel will start filming in October for production house B-Reel.

Lone Scherfig (left), Pernilla August (right)
(Lone Scherfig left, Pernilla August right)
The film was awarded a total of NOK2.2 million, including 200,000 in development support allocated earlier. Set in Stockholm in the early 1900s, The Serious Game (Den allvarsamma liken) is story of a young couple who fall madly in love but eventually separate and marry other people. Ten years later they meet again and start an affair that has unforeseeable consequences on their lives. According to  Patrik Andersson -producer with Frida Bargo for B-Reel-  filming will be split between Stockholm, Film i Väst and Budapest that offers ‘an authentic feel needed to recreate Stockholm of the turn of the last century’. The project co-produced by Denmark's Nimbus, Norway's Motlys and Hungary’s Proton Cinema received co-financing from Nordisk Film, Film i Väst and support from the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian film institutes. TrustNordisk handles world sales.

My Skinny Sister, the directorial debut of award-winning short filmmaker Sanna Lenken (Eating Lunch) was granted NOK1.2 million. The drama based on the director’s own script centres on 12 year-old Stella who wants to be like her seemingly perfect older sister. What she is unaware of is that her sister suffers from an eating disorder that is gradually destroying her family. The project produced by Annika Rogell for Tangy AB just received funding from the Swedish Film Institute. Llona Schultz is co-producer. Principal photography starts on June 9, 2014.

The documentary Blood Sisters produced and directed by Malin Andersson is a coming of age documentary about the sisterhood of Azerbaijani-Swedish twin sisters Julia and Johanna Yunusova. Their twin-symbiosis inevitably changes as they grow from girls to young women. The co-production between Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and France was granted NOK450,000 from the Fund. The estimated delivery date is late October.