Country Focus: Norway

Kinofest to boost admissions

by  Annika Pham

06/11/2009 - As snowflakes have started to fall on Norwegian ground, kids will no doubt flock into cinemas this Saturday to watch Walt Disney’s A Christmas Carol and several Norwegian family films, for only half the price thanks to the special Kinofest (Cinema Day) organised by the local cinema association Film & Kino and the Norwegian Distributors Association.

Smaller cinemas to multiplexes in major cities will be screening new and archive movies from the first morning show at 10:30 to late night screenings, or even round the clock screenings like at Oslo’s Colosseum multiplex.

Nine new films will benefit from this promotional push, including the French film Someone I Loved [trailer] by Zabou Breitman (SF Norge), the animated Belgian film A Town Called Panic [trailer, film focus] by Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar (Coriander Film) and Swedish title Burrowing [trailer] by Fredrik Wenzel and Henrik Hellström (Arthaus).

Current Norwegian releases that will continue to draw crowds or tempt new customers include the children’s films Knerten [trailer] by Åsleik Engmark, which was number one at the box office after its opening weekend last week with over 223,000 admissions; and Best Friends by Christian Lo, number five last weekend.

Drug addiction dramaThe Angel [trailer] by Margreth Olin, was number eight with almost 80,000 admissions in five weeks; Gunnar Vikene’s youth drama Vegas [trailer] was thirteenth; and Sara Johnsen’s romantic drama Upperdog [trailer] was number 17 with over 105, 000 admissions in ten weeks.

Meanwhile, the second Millennium film, The Girl Who Played with Fire [trailer], is nearing the exceptional figures of the first film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [trailer, film focus], with 445,000 admissions compared to 531,000 for Nordisk Film.