29/08/2022 - Producers Yngve Sæther and Thomas Robsahm shared their assessment of Haugesund’s industry platform, alongside NFI international relations manager Stine Oppegaard

l-r: Producers Yngve Sæther (© Motlys) and Thomas Robsahm (© Birgit Solhaug), and NFI international relations manager Stine Oppegaard (© Norwegian Film Institute)

As the 50^th edition of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund came to a close last week, so too did the 27^th New Nordic Films market, uniting and re-uniting new and old friends in the field. We took the opportunity to talk to some of the more seasoned local players.

“It’s my sixth time here – and this one felt good and fun,” was Motlys producer Yngve Sæther’s assessment of the 2022 edition of the New Nordic Films co-production and finance market – boasting an attendance level of over 300 industry professionals after two years of various degrees of lockdown and distancing measures. Sæther presented the forthcoming comedy-drama Listen Up! by newcomer Kaveh Tehrani in the Works in Progress line-up, a forum he’s comfortable with. “You can usually sense directly if something feels right,” reflects Sæther. “We got some great reactions with both The Man Who Loved Yngve [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Women in Oversized Men's Shirts [+see also:
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interview: Yngvild Sve Flikke
film profile], hinting directly at the kind of reception they would get on release.” As for Beware of Children [+see also:
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interview: Dag Johan Haugerud
film profile], Dag Johan Haugerud’s winner of a record nine Amanda Awards in 2020 (see the news), Sæther was at first less sure. “It felt trickier and stuck out from everything else here. My heart sank at first, but then, afterwards, I was told again and again how good it felt to have a really different film! I don’t do many events like this one – Göteborg, and occasionally Les Arcs – but they give you self-confidence, and that’s important. Next year, I have something really special up my sleeve, again involving Dag Johan – just wait and see.”

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Producer Thomas Robsahm quite amazingly started his long and storied cinema career in 1972, and only last weekend received the 2022 Best Film Amanda Award for The Worst Person in the World [+see also:
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interview: Joachim Trier
film profile] (see the news). In the interim, he’s probably been to half of the festival’s editions. This year, he also took the time to present Aurora Gossé’s second feature, Dancing Queen [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in the Works in Progress sessions. “I started off as a child actor and got to be a script supervisor at 19,” he recounts. “Then, I became assistant director, and later on director, producer and even composer – in all, some ten roles.” Although his latest directorial effort, the 2021 Haugesund opener A-HA – The Movie [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Robsahm
film profile], has been a healthy hit, he prefers to identify as a producer. Apart from Dancing Queen, he has three projects in the pipeline for 2022, and five more up for financing for 2023. In all, he calculates that he has around 30 projects at various stages of development. A few, if not all, may be presented in Haugesund. “With Joachim Trier’s films, for example, we usually have distributors and sales agents early on – which has kept me away from the market here for a few years. But Dancing Queen, which was shot this summer, was a good opportunity for a showcase here. It feels like the perfect teaser before Göteborg, Berlin, Sundance and Cannes.” He clearly appreciates being part of a Norwegian milieu, as it has been flourishing of late. “We do great television, like Skam, great arthouse, like Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, great genre films like The Wave [+see also:
film review
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interview: Roar Uthaug
film profile] – and some of this was almost unthinkable ten years ago. Finally, we don’t feel like the little brother of Sweden and Denmark any more.”

A truly seasoned Haugesund player is the Norwegian Film Institute’s international relations manager, Stine Oppegaard, who has notched up four decades in the field. “I’ve been to every festival since 1987, with the exception of two times when I gave birth,” she deducts and remembers the early steps taken towards establishing a Nordic film market, as well as the more established editions, taking shape in the late 1990s and pre-dating the Göteborg and Tallinn markets. “The New Nordic Films market is a unique opportunity for so many people to meet and to network, and really focus on Nordic cinema. It’s well funded by the film institute, via the Foreign Ministry. It’s definitely a success story. If they’re talking about a Nordic boom at Cannes this year, a small place like Haugesund does play a part in giving that good, early push. Here we are, old and new friends, all gathered in a small location, having lunch in the same place. It opens things up nicely for good talks and good relationships.”