Haugesund Fest Turns 50: Prime Company, File 91 Movies

For its 50^th version unspooling Aug. 20-26, Norway’s prime movie occasion, the Norwegian Worldwide Movie Pageant in Haugesund, shall be treating its 400-plus worldwide visitors and native audiences with a beefed-up onsite program of 72 characteristic size movies and 19 shorts.

“We’ve had extra movies to select from than ever earlier than, “says competition honcho Tonje Hardersen about her non-competitive program, put collectively in shut collaboration with native distributors and exhibitors. “We will nonetheless see the post-COVID results on distribution as many titles have been delayed. We now have subsequently barely older movies – from 2020 as much as 2022 – which is uncommon. However this makes for an distinctive program, hopefully for all tastes,” she provides.

World premieres take within the blockbuster Norwegian opener ‘Conflict Sailor’ by Gunnar Vikene starring Kristoffer Joner (‘The Revenant’), Pål Sverre Hagen (‘Kon-Tiki’), and Ine Marie Wilmann (‘Homesick’), about Norwegian warfare sailors’ heroic efforts throughout WWII. Prolific outfit Mer Movie (‘The Innocents’) is producing, with Beta Movie dealing with gross sales.

Additionally world launching within the picturesque seaside city of Haugesund on Aug. 25, is the Swedish closing pic, ‘Love Proof’ by Richard Hobert, who was bestowed an Viewers Award on the Santa Barbara Movie Fest 2019 for ‘The Birdcatcher’s Son’. Headlining the solid of this thriller a few divorce gone fallacious are Rolf Lassgård (‘A Man Referred to as Ove’) and Livia Millhagen (‘Backström’). REinvent maintain worldwide gross sales rights.

As at all times, a slew of high-profile titles are screening in the primary program akin to Erik Poppe’s up to date model of Jan Troell’s traditional “The Emigrants,” Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Notre Dame on Hearth,” the Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarràs’ by Carla Simón, and Cannes laureates “Dealer” by Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Shut” by Lukas Dhont and “Holy Spider! by Ali Abbasi.

In the meantime Ruben Östlund’s wacky satire and Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Unhappiness” is the star attraction of the Nordic Focus and opens the competition’s business showcase, New Nordic Movies (Aug. 23-26).

Nordic excellence in filmmaking shall be highlighted within the sidebar devoted to the Nordic Council Movie Prize, with the 2022 nominees to be unveiled on Aug. 23, whereas 10 rising Nordic skills shall be highlighted on the Subsequent Nordic Technology. These embody Óskar Kristinn Vignisson, picked for the 2021 Cannes Cinéfondation along with his brief movie Free Males.

Though no headcount is obtainable on gender illustration, Hardersen says she will be able to clearly see an enchancment, with 50/50 female and male directed options within the French Focus and the Nordic nations’ lively gender- equality movie insurance policies bearing fruit.

Liv Ullmann, Norway’s largest feminine movie star and the primary Norwegian ever to start an Honorary Academy Award – which she acquired final March – shall be main the competition’s 50^th anniversary celebrations, with a symposium round her profession on Aug. 22.

“Because the Norwegian Movie Pageant’s Honorary President, Liv Ullmann has performed a vital position through the years in lifting our model internationally. It’s a nice honour for us to have her at our facet,” mentioned Hardersen.

Whereas wanting again at Liv Ullmann’s extraordinary movie legacy by means of her personal directed “Faithless,” Viaplay’s doc “Liv Ullmann-The Highway Much less Travelled” and the characteristic “Liv” by Stein Roger Bull, the Norwegian Movie Fest can even replicate on the way forward for the nationwide movie business with sustainability as overarching theme of its Movie Coverage Day on Aug. 22, as a part of the Amanda Dialog – Creative Freedom vs Sustainability.

“These two business panels [held in Norwegian] will attempt to consider the way in which the movie business can contribute to the U.N.’s sustainability targets, however we are going to naturally do our share as a competition to be extra eco-friendly, wanting notably at meals waste,” added Hardersen.

The way forward for movie can even be mentioned from the angle of children and youth, with a panel on children manufacturing and the inaugural Haugesund Kids’s Movie Conference (Aug. 23-24) specializing in how you can attain the following era.

Hardersen says children weigh closely at Haugesund, alongside business individuals and native grownup audiences-mostly ladies aged 50-plus, and she or he expects greater than 5,000 college children to attend the screenings. “We’ve been in a position to hold a bodily – but restricted – occasion throughout COVID, however we’re thrilled to be again to regular,” she concludes.