Oslo, August 31st on a strong run in France, set for 150,000 admissions

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

08/03/2012 - Although slightly out-of-season, Norwegian director Joachim Trier's feature has sold 30,000 tickets during its opening weekend in France, and is set to become the most popular Norwegian film among the French since Bent Hamer's Kitchen Stories (2003), which totalled 75,000.

"Domestically it reached 65,000 admissions, and after two weeks in France it has already done better than that," said Norwegian producer Hans-Jørgen Osnes, of Motlys AS. "Hopefully we will get close to the 150,000 mark," added Alexandre Mallet-Guy, head of the French distributor Memento Films Distribution, which has upped the release from 38 prints to 53 following the early success.

Launched in Un Certain Regard at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival, Oslo, August 31st [trailer, film focus]has been honoured at two French festivals - Pau, Angers - adding two top prizes, including for Best Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Nordic Council Film Award.

At the recent Sundance Film Festival, where Trier was advisor at the Directors' Lab, the film was picked up for American distribution by LA-based Strand Releasing, from German international sales agent The Match Factory, which has licensed the film to more than 20 territories, now also including the UK (Soda Pictures).

Both Oslo, August 31st and Trier's debut Reprise [trailer, film focus] (2006) are on show at Ciné Nordica (March 7-12) in Paris' Cinéma du Panthéon, the only Nordic film festival in France that is also screening two films by his writer-director-musican grandfather Erik Løchen (including The Hunt (1959)). Did he learn anything from him? "No," said Trier, "he died when I was nine. But he taught me ski jumping."