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FESTIVALS Norway

TV series and books are newcomers at Haugesund’s Norwegian International Film Festival

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- Joachim Trier’s Thelma will open the festival, which is due to screen 96 films from 19 countries this year with the addition of the New Nordic Films market

TV series and books are newcomers at Haugesund’s Norwegian International Film Festival
Thelma by Joachim Trier

When Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s new feature Thelma [+see also:
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interview: Eili Harboe
interview: Joachim Trier
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opens the 45th Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund on Sunday 20 August, it will be the first of 95 films from 19 countries to be shown during the six-day programme of the gathering, to which the New Nordic Films Market will add its 23 titles between 22-25 August. 

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Preceded by the Amanda awards ceremony held on 19 August at the Rica Maritim Hall – Norway’s national film awards – this year the festival has added several new events to the schedule, including a section on TV Drama from 21-23 August, which will include the world premieres of two new Norwegian series, Occupied 2 and Norsemen 2, aka Vikings 2

During Books at Haugesund on 22 August, Nordic book agents will pitch books to film producers, and for the first time the nominations for the Nordic Council Film Prize – one of Scandinavia’s largest and most prestigious film awards – will be announced at Haugesund, with the five contenders films to be screened at the festival.

The nominees will be named by the stars of Norway’s – and pubcaster NRK’s – world famous TV series, Shame. A few local celebrities including actors Pia Tjelta and Bjørn Sundquist, will also be in town to take part in the Walk of Fame, where their stones will be revealed at Haraldsgatan on 19 August.

“I am really happy that we are opening with Thelma – Trier and his co-writer, Eskil Vogt, will be here; and obviously the Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola will show his new international production What Happened to Monday? [+see also:
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, starring Noomi Rapace, Willem Dafoe and Glenn Close with several Norwegian actors,” said festival and programme director Tonje Hardersen.

"Wirkola and Pål Sverre Hagen will attend the festival, as well as other Scandinavian guests from the Nordic Focus section: Denmark’s Jens Dahl, Sweden’s Rojda Sekersöz, Katja Wik, Olof Spaak, and Finland’s Visa-Kosio Kanttila and Olli Ilpo Salonen. This year we have also selected seven Cannes films, such as Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled and Michael Haneke’s Happy End [+see also:
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Q&A: Michael Haneke
film profile
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. Among the foreign actor guests are Alec Secareanu, from God’s Own Country [+see also:
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interview: Francis Lee
film profile
]
, and Zoltán Fenyvesi from Kills on Wheels [+see also:
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. We’ve also selected Ari Gold’s The Song of Sway Lake, and UK director Alex Barrett, who will bring his black-and-white silent London Symphony [+see also:
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film profile
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. Besides the artistic talent we will also see a lot of industry toppers for the extensive programme of seminars at the festival,” Hardersen concluded.

The main seminar, Bridging the Nordic Market: How to Strengthen Nordic Content in the Digital Age on 21 August will welcome Norwegian culture minister Linda Hofstad Helleland and will focus on how small Nordic markets can meet the challenges of the international film industry and build a business model on national content alone. 

New Nordic Films, the festival’s market, running from 22 - 25 August for the 16th year in a row and now staged by market director Gyda Velvin Myklebust with coordinator Alexander Huser, is set to screen 23 films and introduce 20 works-in-progress, besides presenting projects for international co-productions.

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