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FESTIVALS Norway

Norway welcomes Films from the South with co-production finance

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A new South Fund to support film production in developing countries will be launched during the upcoming Films from the South (Film fra Sør) - a festival for Asian, African, Middle-East and Latin-American cinema - which will unspool its 21st edition in the Norwegian capital Oslo between October 6-16.

Instigated by Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development Erik Solheim, following an initiative by Films from the South, and administered by the Norwegian Film Institute, the new fund has already received 250 applications for its first allocation of production funding.

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The fund, which will receive a cash injection of €1.3 million from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry over the next five years, has selected 13 projects for a co-production forum during the festival (October 13-14), where filmmakers will introduce their new films to potential Norwegian partners.

“The feedback has been overwhelming,” said head of production Ivar Køhn, of the Norwegian Film Institute. ”We have had applications from Argentina, in the West to Ulan Bator, in the East, with subjects from Zimbabwian folklore to an Argentine drama about the Nazi 'Angel of Death', Dr Josef Mengele.” To qualify for fund backing, directors and producers from developing countries must attach a Norwegian partner – “which is a great opportunity for our local film industry to meet new traditions of filmmaking, strong story-tellers and international competence”, Køhn added.

Participants in the co-production forum include Argentine director Lucia Puenzo, whose XXY [+see also:
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film profile
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won the Critics’ Week prize in Cannes; Zimbabwe director Tsitsi Dambarembga, who is also a best-selling author and Uruguayan director Alvaro Brechner, whose Bad Day to Go Fishing scooped 20 national and international awards.

”Films from the South is already a meeting point for our two worlds of filmmaking – the new fund should further strengthen the contact,” said festival director Lasse Skagen, who has this year programmed more than 100 film screenings, discussions, exhibitions and other cultural events.

Lebanese director Nadine Labaki is the guest of honour - her Where Do We Go Now? [+see also:
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film profile
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, premiered at Cannes, will open the showcase, which also launches the first Oslo Palestine Film Festival, will host an exhibition by Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and unspool its second Kid’s Corner.

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