05/02/2014 - Arne Lindter Næss’ Casper and Emma’s Winter Vacation is this year’s strongest opening in Norway, while Næss prepares to send them on safari

Norwegian audiences love family adventure. After less than two weeks, Arne Lindter Næss’ Casper and Emma’s Winter Vacation is closing in on 220,000 admissions, to become the strongest 2014 opening in Norway so far. Meanwhile, Cinenord Kidstory producers Silje Hopland Eik and Tanya Nanette Badendyckare preparing the third installment of the franchise, Casper and Emma on Safari, also to be directed by Næss.

Based on the children’s book by Norwegian author Tor Åge Brindsværd, Casper and Emma is the story of two young friends, played by Elias Søvold Simonsen and Nora Amundsen. Janne Formoe plays Emma’s mother, with Hilde Lyrån and Markus Tønseth as Casper’s parents. While on their winter holidays, their relationship is jeopardised by the arrival of Peter, whom Casper thinks Emma is paying far too much attention to. The script was written by Alexander Eik.

“The feedback has been fantastic – audiences are obviously happy that Casper and Emma are back on the big screen,” said distribution director Åge Hoffart, of SF Norge, which also released Casper and Emma – Best Friends, the first film in the series, which reached 218,133 local admissions.

Another family adventure, Norwegian director Rasmus A Sivertsen’s fully animated The Christmas of Solan and Ludvig [+see also:
trailer
interview: Rasmus A. Sivertsen
film profile] – which reached no 1 in last year’s charts, taking 854,395 admissions – received the Silver Nugget, the honorary prize of the Norwegian Exhibitors Association, as Best Film for Children and Youth Audiences 2013. “Traditional puppet animation suits the universe of Kjell Aukrust well, and audiences have crowded the theatres to see the new story of Reodor, Ludvig and Solan,” explained the jury. 

Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s A Thousand Times Good Night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Erik Poppe
film profile], starring French actress Juliette Binoche as a famous war photographer who has to choose between her job and her family, was named Best Drama 2013. “The ending really hits you in the stomach – it is not a film you forget easily,” said the jury of the title, which won two awards at last year’s Montreal International Film Festival. Sivertsen and Poppe have previously won the Silver Nugget, both in 2008, for Kurt Turns Evil [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Troubled Water [+see also:
trailer
film profile], respectively.