One of the top winners announced on Wednesday night at Canneseries was the Banijay-Rights-sold “Countrymen,” from Norwegian pubcaster Nrk in co-production with Rubicon and Arte France.
The show took home two awards, one for performance for its whole cast, and a High-School Best Series Prize, voted by students from local lycées.
The long-format TV series was co-written by revered Norwegian screenwriter Anne Bjørnstad alongside newcomer writer-director Izer Aliu, whose debut film “Hunting Flies” won him an Amanda Award for best director at Haugesund’s Norwegian Intl. Film Festival. The story follows four Muslim men who move to a rural part of Norway and end up creating Norway’s first halal cheesemaking business. With dark humor, frequently broken to reveal the characters’ inner feelings, “Countrymen” attempts to immerse the audience into a modern multicultural Norway, without taking itself too seriously.
Variety sat down with Izer Aliu in Cannes to talk about...
The show took home two awards, one for performance for its whole cast, and a High-School Best Series Prize, voted by students from local lycées.
The long-format TV series was co-written by revered Norwegian screenwriter Anne Bjørnstad alongside newcomer writer-director Izer Aliu, whose debut film “Hunting Flies” won him an Amanda Award for best director at Haugesund’s Norwegian Intl. Film Festival. The story follows four Muslim men who move to a rural part of Norway and end up creating Norway’s first halal cheesemaking business. With dark humor, frequently broken to reveal the characters’ inner feelings, “Countrymen” attempts to immerse the audience into a modern multicultural Norway, without taking itself too seriously.
Variety sat down with Izer Aliu in Cannes to talk about...
- 10/15/2021
- by Alexander Durie
- Variety Film + TV
In advance of its international premiere at this month’s upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, Norway has picked director Joachim Trier’s new feature “Thelma” as its official foreign-language Oscar submission. The ambitious thriller just opened last month’s Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, where it received the Norwegian Film Critics Prize.
The film is Trier’s fourth feature, and his second to make the cut — his 2006 debut “Reprise” was picked to represent his home country, but did not make the final nominations cut. It was picked from a shortlist of candidates, which included Norwegian directors Izer Aliu’s “Hunting Flies” (Fluefangeren) and Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s “The Tree Feller” (Hoggeren).
In the film, a young Norwegian student moves to Oslo and falls in love with a beautiful classmate. At the same time, she begins to notice her own mystifying and inexplicable connection to the supernatural. It’s a...
The film is Trier’s fourth feature, and his second to make the cut — his 2006 debut “Reprise” was picked to represent his home country, but did not make the final nominations cut. It was picked from a shortlist of candidates, which included Norwegian directors Izer Aliu’s “Hunting Flies” (Fluefangeren) and Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s “The Tree Feller” (Hoggeren).
In the film, a young Norwegian student moves to Oslo and falls in love with a beautiful classmate. At the same time, she begins to notice her own mystifying and inexplicable connection to the supernatural. It’s a...
- 9/5/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Project marks first Sami-inspired film for children.
LevelK has boarded sales on Storyline Pictures’ new family feature Sáve, which will be the first Sami-inspired film for children.
Storyline Pictures head of production Khalid Maimouni is currently financing the film for production expected in 2019.
Children’s novelist Jens Martin Mienna is developing the script. No director is attached yet.
The project, with a budget of about $5m (€4.5m), is developed with support from International Sami Film Institute and Filmfond Nord.
The original screenplay is a fantasy-adventure drama inspired byancient Sami mythology.
A girl, Sáve, who recently lost her mother under mysterious circumstances, goes on a magical and dangerous journey into the mythical Sami underworld.
Norway’s Storyline and LevelK previously collaborated on Hunting Flies [pictured], which had its world premiere in Toronto.
“Having already worked with LevelK on our previous feature film Hunting Flies by Izer Aliu, we were never in doubt about who we wanted as our international...
LevelK has boarded sales on Storyline Pictures’ new family feature Sáve, which will be the first Sami-inspired film for children.
Storyline Pictures head of production Khalid Maimouni is currently financing the film for production expected in 2019.
Children’s novelist Jens Martin Mienna is developing the script. No director is attached yet.
The project, with a budget of about $5m (€4.5m), is developed with support from International Sami Film Institute and Filmfond Nord.
The original screenplay is a fantasy-adventure drama inspired byancient Sami mythology.
A girl, Sáve, who recently lost her mother under mysterious circumstances, goes on a magical and dangerous journey into the mythical Sami underworld.
Norway’s Storyline and LevelK previously collaborated on Hunting Flies [pictured], which had its world premiere in Toronto.
“Having already worked with LevelK on our previous feature film Hunting Flies by Izer Aliu, we were never in doubt about who we wanted as our international...
- 5/21/2017
- by [email protected] (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Luke Shanahan is directing the dark thriller about a medical student whose twin is abducted.
Adelaide Clemens, whose credits include Parade’s End and The Great Gatsby, has taken on the lead role in Luke Shanahan’s dark thriller Rabbit, which starts shooting today. Clemens replaces the previously reported Abbey Lee in the role.
Shanahan will shoot for five weeks on locations in and around Adelaide, Australia. David Ngo produces the co-production between A Longshot Film and Projector Films. LevelK handles international sales on Shanahan’s feature debut.
Clemens stars as Maude Ashton, a young medical student haunted by visions of her twin sister’s abduction, who discovers a secret society that might be connected to her missing sister.
The actress recently finished shooting Music War And Love in Poland with Connie Nielsen and Stellan Skarsgard.
In Rabbit, she reunites with her Wasted On The Young co-star Alex Russell, who has recently...
Adelaide Clemens, whose credits include Parade’s End and The Great Gatsby, has taken on the lead role in Luke Shanahan’s dark thriller Rabbit, which starts shooting today. Clemens replaces the previously reported Abbey Lee in the role.
Shanahan will shoot for five weeks on locations in and around Adelaide, Australia. David Ngo produces the co-production between A Longshot Film and Projector Films. LevelK handles international sales on Shanahan’s feature debut.
Clemens stars as Maude Ashton, a young medical student haunted by visions of her twin sister’s abduction, who discovers a secret society that might be connected to her missing sister.
The actress recently finished shooting Music War And Love in Poland with Connie Nielsen and Stellan Skarsgard.
In Rabbit, she reunites with her Wasted On The Young co-star Alex Russell, who has recently...
- 9/12/2016
- by [email protected] (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Macedonian film-maker Izer Aliu’s next film will be comedy-drama 12 Dares.
Macedonia-born, Norway-based director Izer Aliu, who premieres his debut feature Hunting Flies [pictured] in Discovery (sold by LevelK), is currently editing his second feature 12 Dares and has two other features in the works.
12 Dares, one of the best-received projects pitched in Haugesund’s Work In Progress last month, will be finished by the end of the year to show to early 2017 festivals.
He is also keen to stay busy with personal work between bigger projects, making a “freestyle” feature called The Balkan Party, which he calls a side project without typical funding. That will shoot in February in Norway, and tell a story of youth clubs from different ethnic groups organising a joint party. The film explores prejudices between groups but Aliu says it is “mostly comedy.”
12 Dares, a Swedish-Norwegian co-production produced by Lizette Jonjic of Zentropa Sweden, Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film and Khalid Maimouni of Storyline...
Macedonia-born, Norway-based director Izer Aliu, who premieres his debut feature Hunting Flies [pictured] in Discovery (sold by LevelK), is currently editing his second feature 12 Dares and has two other features in the works.
12 Dares, one of the best-received projects pitched in Haugesund’s Work In Progress last month, will be finished by the end of the year to show to early 2017 festivals.
He is also keen to stay busy with personal work between bigger projects, making a “freestyle” feature called The Balkan Party, which he calls a side project without typical funding. That will shoot in February in Norway, and tell a story of youth clubs from different ethnic groups organising a joint party. The film explores prejudices between groups but Aliu says it is “mostly comedy.”
12 Dares, a Swedish-Norwegian co-production produced by Lizette Jonjic of Zentropa Sweden, Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film and Khalid Maimouni of Storyline...
- 9/10/2016
- by [email protected] (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Screen reports on the 19 project pitches, including animations, family fare and a Daniel Dencik drama.
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
The Nordic Co-Production And Finance Market at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films event hosted its project pitches today (August 24).
They included Daniel Dencik’s drama about a disintegrating relationship 1000 R.I.P.; a children’s animation from Norway’s Aleksander Nordaas, the director of festival hit Thale; Icelandic director Marteinn Thorsson’s new psychological thriller; Martin Skovbjerg’s debut feature produced by hot new Danish outfit Snowglobe (who won Locarno’s Golden Leopard with Godless); and a new family film, hand drawn 2D animated Amundsen & Nobile.
Projects from Georgia, Italy and Canada were also included in the 19-strong line-up.
Overview of pitches:
1000 R.I.P., dir Daniel Dencik, prod Michael Haslund-Christensen, Company Haslund/Dencik Entertainment (Den)
The team behind 2015’s Gold Coast reunites for this fable inspired by The Passenger about a couple who meet a half Japanese model in the desert...
- 8/24/2016
- by [email protected] (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
- 8/23/2016
- by [email protected] (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.
A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.
Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.
Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).
Festival Street
For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.
“Festival Street brings great value...
- 8/23/2016
- by [email protected] (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Next month’s Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its lineup announcements, and each one is more impressive than the last. Today’s Tiff picks feature a number of slate additions for sections as varied as the forward-focused Discovery, their burgeoning Pop Vr section and even a handful of last minute additions to the Tiff Docs list. New titles of note that have just been announced include the Cannes hit “The Red Turtle,” Wayne Roberts’ “Katie Says Goodbye” and the well-regarded “Sand Storm,” all of which will screen as part of Discovery.
Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program
Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”
Additionally, the festival has...
Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program
Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”
Additionally, the festival has...
- 8/23/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Erik Poppe, Paul Mayersberg, Aage Aaberge team on painter biopic.
Erik Poppe is attached to direct a new biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch.
Poppe, whose latest drama A Thousand Times Goodnight took the Best Film Prize at this week’s Amanda Awards in Norway, will collaborate on the project with veteran UK writer Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and Norwegian producer Aage Aaberge (Kon-Tiki).
Aaberge, of Neofilm told ScreenDaily at Haugesund that the film is “a dream project” of his.
“For eight years I have wanted to make a film of Munch, Norway’s greatest artists,” he said. “After all, the latest effort, by UK director Peter Watkins, dates back to 1974.”
“But it was difficult to find the right way to approach the project, until I met writer-director Paul Mayersberg.”
Loosely based on Norwegian author Ketil Bjørnstad’s book, The Story of Edvard Munch, the film will...
Erik Poppe is attached to direct a new biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch.
Poppe, whose latest drama A Thousand Times Goodnight took the Best Film Prize at this week’s Amanda Awards in Norway, will collaborate on the project with veteran UK writer Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and Norwegian producer Aage Aaberge (Kon-Tiki).
Aaberge, of Neofilm told ScreenDaily at Haugesund that the film is “a dream project” of his.
“For eight years I have wanted to make a film of Munch, Norway’s greatest artists,” he said. “After all, the latest effort, by UK director Peter Watkins, dates back to 1974.”
“But it was difficult to find the right way to approach the project, until I met writer-director Paul Mayersberg.”
Loosely based on Norwegian author Ketil Bjørnstad’s book, The Story of Edvard Munch, the film will...
- 8/19/2014
- by [email protected] (Jorn Rossing Jensen)
- ScreenDaily
Filmmakers pitching include Iram Haq [pictured], who just completed I Am Yours and is now working on The Way Back; and Concerning Violence producer Annika Rogell with My Skinny Sister.
Gothenburg’s Nordic Film Market hosted 10 pitches this morning from the participants of the year-long Nordic Film Lab. The culmination of a year in the Lab leads to the presentations today. The Lab has existed since 2008 and intends to support talented filmmakers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who are “at the starting point of their careers.”
Today’s projects presented are:
Bobbi Jene Smith – Is It An Avalanche Or A Parade? (Denmark)
Julie Leerskov, producer
Elvira Lind, director
Documentary about a 30-year-old dancer In Tel Aviv embarking on a new phase in her career. Lind says the film celebrates “female strength.”
Contact: [email protected]
Lake Over Fire (Norway)
Joern Utkilen, director
A film, with actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, about Norwegian...
Gothenburg’s Nordic Film Market hosted 10 pitches this morning from the participants of the year-long Nordic Film Lab. The culmination of a year in the Lab leads to the presentations today. The Lab has existed since 2008 and intends to support talented filmmakers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who are “at the starting point of their careers.”
Today’s projects presented are:
Bobbi Jene Smith – Is It An Avalanche Or A Parade? (Denmark)
Julie Leerskov, producer
Elvira Lind, director
Documentary about a 30-year-old dancer In Tel Aviv embarking on a new phase in her career. Lind says the film celebrates “female strength.”
Contact: [email protected]
Lake Over Fire (Norway)
Joern Utkilen, director
A film, with actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, about Norwegian...
- 1/31/2014
- by [email protected] (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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