And the Going Is Good - couldn’t be better for Heide

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

18/06/2012 - Three chapters about about pride, power and giving up in time in Norwegian director Vibeke Heide’s And the Going Is Good took the main prize – the Golden Chair – for Best Norwegian Short at the 35th Norwegian International Short Film Festival in Grimstad, which ended Sunday (June 17).

379 local productions were submitted and 82 selected for for the Norwegian competition programme at the showcase – Norway’s largest for shorts - which was opened by HRM Crown Prince Haakon and Culture Minister Anniken Huitfeldt on June 13.

A graduate from the Norwegian Film School, Heide had herself produced and written her festival winner (with Anne Lise Frøkedal). The two co-writers are currently working on a script for a feature with support from the Norwegian Film Institute.

The Golden Chair for Best International Short went to Bosnian director Danis Tanovic’s Baggage, about a young Bosnian returning to his place of birth after the war to take custody of his murdered parents’ remains, where he meets people who know more about him than he does himself. Produced by Amra Baksic Camo, Baggage was also scripted by Tanovic, like he wrote and directed the Bosnian Film No Man's Land [trailer] (2001), which garnered him an Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature.

Produced by Norway’s Torstein Grude, Indian director Nishta Jain’s Gulabi Gang was seated in the Golden Chair for Best Norwegian Documentary. It depicts a neighbourhood watch group for women, operating in the villages of India’s poor Bundelkhand region. From three entries, André Chocron received the IFPI and FONO prizes for Best Music Video for his interpretation of Cold Mailman – Time is of the Essence, from the Norwegian group’s second album, Relax.