10/02/2015 - After running the Cinemagi children’s festival for several years, Tonje Hardersen has been appointed new interim festival director, to succeed Gunnar Johan Løvvik

Tonje Hardersen (© Helge Hansen/Film & Kino)

Film consultant Tonje Hardersen, of the Norwegian film association Film & Kino, who has for several years been responsible for the Cinemagi programme for children and youth audiences at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, will be running the gathering from 1 March until a new festival management team has been appointed.

At a festival board meeting in Berlin, during the Berlin International Film Festival, Hardersen was named interim festival director, to succeed Gunnar Johan Løvvik, who has been managing director of the event since its inception in 1985. Until further notice, Løvvik will continue as an advisor and head of the Amanda Awards, Norway’s national film prize. 

“The Norwegian International Film Festival has a firm grounding in Haugesund, and a solid and skilled team both in Oslo and in Haugesund, so I know I will have good support. I look forward to organising this year’s festival (15-21 August) in collaboration with the Norwegian film industry and all the local capacity in Haugesund,” Hardersen said.

Festival chairman Knut Even Lindsjørn was confident that the board – after having consulted with the owners, Film & Kino, the Municipality of Haugesund and Rogaland county – had found a very satisfactory solution to the organising of the festival. Håkon Skogrand will continue as programme director and Gyda Velvin Myklebust as head of the New Nordic Films market.

Having qualified with an MA in Film, Cinema and Video from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Hardersen worked for the Association of Norwegian Film Clubs and local distributor Arthaus, before joining Film & Kino as a children’s film advisor in 2003. Besides running the kids’ film gathering in Haugesund, she was programme director of the entire festival in 2012.