16/08/2013 - The Norwegian International Film Festival (August 15-22) presents five local films in the official programme, another 10 and five works-in-progress in New Nordic Films

“There is currently an impressive diversity in Norwegian cinema,” explained programme director Håkon Skogrand, of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, who has selected five local films for the official programme, while another 10 and five works-in-progress will screen in the New Nordic Films market section.

Both the opening and the closing film of the main programme are Norwegian, Erik Skjoldbjærg’s oil rush thriller Pioneer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo), starring Aksel Henie, and Gunhild Westhagen Magnor’s The Optimists [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ingunn Knudsen
film profile], a documentary of a volleyball club of ladies aged 66-98. Taking a Swedish popular children’s book character to the screen, Oscar-winning Torill Kove’s fully-animated Hocus, Pocus, Alfie Atkins! will open the Cinemagi children’s section.

Unspooling between August 15-22 - and including the Amanda ceremony (August 16), Norway’s national film prizes - the Norwegian International Film Festival has increasingly focused on Norway, the Nordic countries and Europe – this year ranging the main international selection, Cinemagi, French Touch, New British Films, Nordic Focus and New Nordic Films as equal parts of the showcase.

The international line-up comprises 23 films from 13 countries set in very different environments - “from New York hipsters to Romanian upper classes and French gay cruisers on a nudist beach.” Among the entries: Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s Cannes winner, Blue Is the Warmest Colour [+see also:
film review
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interview: Abdellatif Kechiche
film profile]; German director Margaretha von Trotta’s Hannah Arendt [+see also:
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interview: Margarethe von Trotta
film profile]; Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Calin Peter Netzer
film profile]); French director Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
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interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile]; and US directors Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy; Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas; JC Chandor’s All Is Lost, with Robert Redford.

Scheduled between August 19-21, the industry side of the festival, New Nordic Films and the Co-Production and Film Financing Forum, will introduce 25 recent Nordic productions and 10 works-in-progress (from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). 22 projects from the Nordic region, Canada, the UK, Germany, France and Estonia will be pitched in the forum to more than 300 participants.