Country Focus: Norway
by Cineuropa
23/05/2010 - Articles, interviews, news, analysis on the Norwegian audiovisual sector.
Country profile: Norway
International Film Guide 2012: Norway
A survey of the film culture and output in Norway published by the International Film Guide.
Cinema-going increased among younger and elder audiences
Younger and elder Norwegians go more often to the movies than a decade ago, according to a new analysis of cinema audiences published by TNS Gallup for the Norwegian Cinema Association Film & Kino. Following a drop in admissions among younger audience at the beginning of the decade, cinema attendance stabilised at an average 2.7 visits per capita in 2009. Youths aged 15-19 are the most avid cinemagoers, with 4.9 visits last year, against 1.7 for Norwegians over 60. Over the last decade, a...
Norway - International Film Guide Survey 2010
A survey of the film culture and output in Norway published by the International Film Guide.
Film & Kino sign digital deal with Sony
By this week signing a non-exclusive deal with Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI), Norwegian cinema organization Film & Kino now has six Hollywood studios on board for its complete national rollout of digital screens, set to begin immediately. Under the agreement, subject to booking terms, SPRI will supply its films in digital format to Norwegian cinemas with DCI-compliant digital projection systems, and will contribute financially to Norwegian cinemas’ digital (or D) conversion...
Norway closer to screen digital roll-out
Norway’s cinema and video organisation Film & Kino has hired Unique Cinema System for the digital conversion of the majority of its screens (approximately 350). The process, set to kick-start in the spring, should be completed by the end of 2011. One of the pioneers of digital cinema advertising in Europe, Unique Cinema System has won nine out of ten bids to digitally equip almost all Norwegian screens, apart from 60 screens in the western part of Norway where Nordic Digital Alliance will...
Norwegian children’s films boost cinema-going
This year was a record year for Norwegian children’s films on national screens. Five such movies sold over one million tickets, taking as much as 40% of all admissions for Norwegian films, according to the Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino. The admissions record for domestic kids’ movies set in 2007 has been now broken by 200,000 admissions. The two titles still driving up admissions are Christmas fairy tale Magic Silver by Roar Uthaug and Katarina Launing, and Åsleik Engmark’s...
Kinofest to boost admissions
As snowflakes have started to fall on Norwegian ground, kids will no doubt flock into cinemas this Saturday to watch Walt Disney’s A Christmas Carol and several Norwegian family films, for only half the price thanks to the special Kinofest (Cinema Day) organised by the local cinema association Film & Kino and the Norwegian Distributors Association. Smaller cinemas to multiplexes in major cities will be screening new and archive movies from the first morning show at 10:30 to late night...
Kid movie Knerten breaks opening record
Released last Friday by Scanbox Entertainment, Knerten, the directorial debut of Norwegian actor/stand-up comedian Åsleik Engmark, has had the best opening ever for a Norwegian children’s film, with over 65,000 admissions from 125 screens. With over 13,000 admissions from preview screenings, Knerten was seen by nearly 79,000 Norwegians in its opening weekend, an opening similar to Mother Elling (70,952 admissions). This year’s best opening weekend until now was for horror spoof Dead Snow...
State film budget up €6m
Norwegian Minister of Culture Trond Giske announced earlier this week that the film budget for 2010 will reach NOK625m (€75.3m), up NOK50m (€6m) from 2009. More than half of the total amount – NOK 368m (€44.3m) – will be earmarked for the production of audiovisual works. The increase in public funding, the biggest ever, will also go towards regional film centres that will receive a total budget of NOK42.3m (€5m) for 2010, up NOK5m (€602,000) from 2009. Another NOK 3m (€361,000) will be...
Euforia takes over Scanbox releases
New, independent distributor Euforia Film has agreed with Scandinavian major Scanbox to take over theatrical distribution in Norway of all their upcoming titles. The deal was signed mid-August as the Scandinavian distribution group is gradually downsizing its activities. To handle the 17-20 titles in its new line-up, twice the volume of its usual slate, Euforia has had to double its staff to six full-time employees. New, exciting times are ahead for the company that managed in only two years...
Admissions up 8% in first half of 2009
Thanks to local hit Max Manus, which has stayed at the top of the 2009 charts since late December 2008, total admissions for the first half of 2009 were up 8% over 2008 (to 5,591,082), and the market share for local films reached a record 26.5% (or 1,481,563 admissions). There are three Norwegian films in the year’s top ten so far, according to Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino: Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s WW2 drama Max Manus was number one (756,963 admissions in 2009 and...
Norway ready to sign European co-production Convention
Nina Refseth, head of the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI), is in Cannes this week to meet with her European counterparts and to tell them that the ratification by the Norwegian government of the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production is “around the corner”. “This means it could happen by August or, hopefully, before our elections on September 14,” specified Refseth. “Joining the European Co-production Convention will make a huge different for Norwegian producers. So far, it’s...
Norway - International Film Guide Survey
The last two years showed significant progress and an air of optimism within the Norwegian film industry. The Department of Culture’s target of 25 features per year (including documentaries) has been successfully reached and will hopefully continue. Norwegian film producers proved that there are enough ideas and talent to sustain such a prolific rate. Read the survey published by the International Film Guide: Survey - Norway
Record 22.5% local market share in 2008
Last year was the best since 2003 for Norwegian films, which upped their total admissions by almost 50% from 2007 to almost 2.7 million in 2008, according to preliminary figures published by Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino. The WWII drama Max Manus, released on December 19, immediately took fourth place in the Norwegian top 20 of 2008, alongside three other local films: Nils Gaup’s historic epic The Kautokeino Rebellion (343,615 admissions), the comedy Long Flat Balls II (293,057...
First Nordic full digital multiplex in Oslo
Oslo municipal cinemas (Oslo Kino) last week inaugurated the first 100% digital multiplex in the Nordic countries, the newly built Ringen theatre, equipped with digital 3D for three of its six screens. ”This is a breakthrough for digitalisation and a milestone which shows that we are heading towards a new technological era,” said Lene Løken, head of Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino. “I’m also very pleased with the opening of the Ringen Cinema because it drastically increases the...
