When the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund opened its 20^th edition of the New Nordic Films market for industry professionals last night (19 August), screening Swedish director Leif Lindblom’s Finnish feature The Raspberry Boat Refugee, it registered a record number of 355 participants from 35 countries. The market runs until 22 August.

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The head of New Nordic Films for the last 15 years, Gyda Velvin Myklebust, and co-ordinator Roger Grosvold had prepared a programme of 21 new Nordic films, including 17 world premieres; 20 works in progress, in need of sales agents and distributors; 20 pitches for the co-production and finance market, in search of co-producers and co-financiers; and an introduction to the Next Nordic Generation, a competition for ten shorts by graduates from five Nordic film schools.

Four of the world premieres are Norwegian: Danish director Peter Flinth’s festival opener, Beatles [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]; Ole Endresen’s Chasing Berlusconi [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]; Eirik Svensson’s One Night in Oslo; and Ole Giæver’s Out of Nature, which will continue to the festival in Toronto. In addition to these will be Hallvard Bræin’s Børning [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which was launched domestically last week; Nils Gaup’s Glass Dolls [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which was released in the spring; and Hallvar Witzø’s short Yes, We Love, which won a prize at Cannes. 

Sweden has contributed, among others, Colin Nutley’s Medicine and Ella Lemhagen’s The Boy with the Golden Trousers; Iceland Baldvin Zophoníasson’s Life in a Fishbowl [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which has also been selected for Toronto; and Denmark Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Absent One, from Jussi Adler-Olsen’s series of novels, following up on The Keeper of Lost Causes [+lire aussi :
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interview : Eugenio Mira
fiche film]; Niels Arden Oplev’s first Danish film since Worlds Apart [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] in 2008, Speed Walking (Kapgang); and Jonas Alexander Arnby’s Cannes entry, When Animals Dream [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jonas Alexander Arnby
fiche film].

For the first time, the market will introduce Next Nordic Generation, a competition for ten shorts made by student graduates from the film schools in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tampere, Lillehammer and Gothenburg. Cine-Regio, the network of 43 film funds from 12 EU member states, will hold its annual meeting in Haugesund today (20 August). Meanwhile, the main seminar on 21 August will discuss “The Role of the Distributor in a Changing Market”, moderated by executive director of promotion and international relations Stine Helgeland, of the Norwegian Film Institute.