24/11/2008

To help Norwegian producers increase the co-financing of their projects with international partners, the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) announced this week that it will focus on Germany next year.

As part of the upcoming Berlinale (February 5-15), ten “Berlin grants” of NOK10,000 each will be made available to Norwegian producers who wish to attend some of the festival’s seminars; who need to meet German producers for collaboration on specific projects; are looking for international financing for projects that are still in the early stages of development; or simply wish to do more networking with German producers.

The NFI has invited Norwegian producers to submit letters of motivation by December 1, 2008. All grant recipients will be invited to attend an information day with German film professionals on February 8.

Pandora in Germany is a regular co-production partner of Bent Hamer’s BulBul Films, and Eva Dahr’s upcoming The Orange Girl, based on a novel by Jostein Gaarder, is co-produced by Germany’s Tradewind Pictures.

The Special Germany Financial Grant was announcement by Ivar Køhn, head of NFI’s Development and Production Unit, during an industry gathering at the institute, where he also outlined other priorities for 2009, such as bringing directors back to the heart of the filmmaking process.

“What we’ve done over the last decade is develop the skills of scriptwriters and producers to improve the triangular relationship with directors” Køhn told Cineuropa. “This has contributed to a clear upturn in local film production. However, in this process directors have somehow been left behind. What we want is to bring them up again and remind ourselves of their essential role in the filmmaking process, the way it is done in Sweden and Denmark.”