09/06/2006

The 34th Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund (August 18-24) will launch the first co-production Forum for feature films in the Nordic countries as part of its now established, annual New Nordic Films market held during the main festival.

The two day co-production event (August 21-22) will be co-organised with Peacefulfish, the consulting company for financing the content industry, and its first instalment will focus on co-producing with the UK. Other seminars will discuss co-productions inside Scandinavia and within Europe.

The festival itself, the biggest film event in Norway, will open on August 18 with the annual Amanda Awards ceremony (local Oscars), to be broadcast for the first time live on TV2, Norway’s largest commercial television channel. This year’s president of the awards is local star actor Aksel Hennie (Uno). The nominations for the 16 different awards categories will be announced at the end of June.

The official opening of the Haugesund Festival will be held on August 19 with the screening of Stefan Faldbakken’s Uro [+see also:
trailer
film profile], shown in Un Certain Regard at last month’s Cannes Film Festival and produced by Christian Fredrik Martin, Norway’s 2006 Producer on the Move (see interview).

The closing film will be another feature debut: Sons (Sønner) by promising Norwegian director Erik Richter Strand, who attended the Lillehammer Film School. The gritty fast-paced drama was produced by Tordenfilm in Oslo, the company behind the acclaimed The Bothersome Man.