31/07/2026 - The Danish-Norwegian-Swedish drama will compete in the New Directors sidebar, with TrustNordisk boarding international sales ahead of its festival launch

Jan Gunnar Røise and Gina Jaqueline in Cute (© Thomas Dyholm)

Norwegian filmmaker Marlene Emilie Lyngstad will unveil her feature debut, Cute, in the New Directors competition of the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival (18-26 September – see the news). TrustNordisk has boarded international sales ahead of the world premiere of the 106-minute drama, which is being produced by Carl Osbæck Adelkilde for Nordisk Film Production.

A character-driven exploration of forbidden desire, loneliness and moral ambiguity, Cute centres on Richard, who becomes troubled by his feelings for his girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter. He decides to leave the relationship and retreats to his childhood home, which he plans to renovate before selling. His self-imposed isolation is disrupted by Stella, his mother’s caregiver, whose childlike presence draws his attention.

Richard subsequently discovers that Stella leads a double life as a Lolita camgirl. Confined together in the house, the pair gradually construct a transgressive surrogate father-daughter relationship, each seeking in the other something missing from their own life. Their fragile reality begins to unravel when the stepdaughter Richard abandoned attempts to re-establish contact. The film is described as a kind of love story about a man longing for childhood innocence and a woman attempting to reclaim her own.

“The decision to include Cute in the programme demonstrates the courage to embrace difficult subjects and moral ambiguity. For that, I am incredibly grateful,” says Lyngstad. “With this film, I have sought to explore tenderness in one of the most disturbing corners of human experience. I can’t wait to share it with audiences in September.”

The film is led by Norwegian actor Jan Gunnar Røise, recently seen in Dag Johan Haugerud’s award-winning Sex, and emerging talent Gina Jaqueline. Kitt Maiken Mortensen, Karin Bertling and Molly Kirk Rasmussen also feature among the cast. Røise previously starred in Lyngstad’s 45-minute graduation film, Norwegian Offspring (2023).

Born in Oslo in 1997 and now based in Denmark, Lyngstad graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2023. Norwegian Offspring won the First Prize in Cannes’ La Cinef competition, before picking up the Next Nordic Generation Award in Haugesund and the Best Nordic Short Film Award at Nordisk Panorama. Her other short-form work includes Lakenfort, Onanerende Subjekter and Veggdyr, while her short documentary Finale premiered at CPH:DOX in 2024.

Cute, originally developed under the working title Great Acts of Humiliation, has already enjoyed a successful journey around the Nordic and European development circuit. Lyngstad and Adelkilde received the NOK 250,000 (approximately €23,000) Nordic Talents Pitch Prize in 2023, with the jury praising the project’s exploration of objectification and the cruelty that can lurk beneath cuteness. Later that year, it also secured the €1,500 Talent Village Award at Les Arcs.

The screenplay is co-written by Lyngstad and Emilie Koefoed Larsen, who also collaborated on Norwegian Offspring. The creative team includes cinematographer Thomas Dyrholm, editor Carl Gustav Nordentoft, sound designer Emil Salling, composer Josefine Skov, production designer Sara Helene Tilgaard and costume designer Diana Dybkær. Katrine Vogelsang and Tine Grew Pfeiffer are the pic's executive producers.

“Lyngstad has a unique voice as a filmmaker, and we’re excited to follow her debut film’s journey and introduce it to audiences at San Sebastián,” comments TrustNordisk managing director Susan Wendt.

Budgeted at €1.3 million, Cute is being produced by Nordisk Film Production, with Nordisk Film Production Sverige and Film i Väst serving as co-producers. Additional backing comes from the Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen scheme, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, Amarcord and Nordisk Film Distribution. The latter is handling the film’s domestic distribution.