18/12/2007

The Norwegian arm of Danish media giant Nordisk Film has set up a specialised production arm, Neo Film, which will focus on arthouse films for adult audiences.

Nordisk Film Norway’s current head of production Aage Aaberge will be the company’s new managing director as of April 2008 and will hold a minority stake in Neo Film. At Nordisk Film, he will be replaced by Cornelia Boysen.

Both Stein-Roger Bull, head of Nordisk Film Norway, and Aaberge had the idea to set up a specialised production arm to unload some of the production weight on another entity and to label it differently from Nordisk Film, very much identified as a company focusing on mainstream family films.

“Our production department at Nordisk has become very big, with approximately five feature films produced each year,” stressed Aaberge. “So we agreed that it would be interesting to split our production unit and set up a separate structure dedicated to art films for adults.”

Next April, Aaberge will move with Neo Film to the production centre Filmparken at Jar outside of Oslo. Among the first Neo projects will be The Model, to be directed by first-timer Per Olav Sørensen, based on a popular novel by Lars Saabye Christensen. Aaberge also plans to develop a 3D animated feature.

Until then, at Nordisk, Aaberge will supervise the theatrical releases of three of his productions in 2008: a new family film SOS Save our Seal by Arne Lindtner Næss, (opening next February); Night of the Wolf (Ulvenatten) by Swedish filmmaker Kjell Sundvall, set to open on February 29; and Respect, the directorial debut of Norwegian actor Johannes Joner, scheduled for early March. Respect is described by Aaberge as “an experimental film for youth.”

Nordisk Film Norway recently took a stake in one of Norway’s major production companies, Maipo Film (The Art of Negative Thinking [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).