Exclusive: Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson, now best known as the director behind beautiful, taut features like Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, wrote to Swedish screen legend Ingmar Bergman sometime in the early 2000s with an idea. Bergman’s response was characteristically colorful.
“What the hell is this? What do you mean?” Bergman told Alfredson.
Alfredson had told the Persona filmmaker that he wanted to remake Faithless, the 2000 feature Bergman had written about an imaginary woman who recollects her painful experience of adultery to an aging filmmaker. The pic played in competition that year in Cannes and was directed by Bergman’s ex-wife, actress Liv Ullmann.
“This was long before everyone was producing remakes, so it was a very unusual question, especially for Bergman,” Alfredson said.
Fast forward to February 2024 and Alfredson is deep into an edit of a contemporary TV adaptation of Faithless he has...
“What the hell is this? What do you mean?” Bergman told Alfredson.
Alfredson had told the Persona filmmaker that he wanted to remake Faithless, the 2000 feature Bergman had written about an imaginary woman who recollects her painful experience of adultery to an aging filmmaker. The pic played in competition that year in Cannes and was directed by Bergman’s ex-wife, actress Liv Ullmann.
“This was long before everyone was producing remakes, so it was a very unusual question, especially for Bergman,” Alfredson said.
Fast forward to February 2024 and Alfredson is deep into an edit of a contemporary TV adaptation of Faithless he has...
- 2/29/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
As the final work in progress wrapped on Friday, Göteborg ‘s head of TV Drama Vision Cia Edström and head of industry and Nordic Film Market Josef Kullengård could finally relax after a mission well accomplished.
Two of their biggest challenges this year – hosting an industry showcase for 700-plus international delegates in a brand-new venue, the Clarion Hotel Draken, and lifting the Nordic industry’s moral by the crisis in the drama sector – had been successfully met. Variety drills down on how and why:
All-Time Record Attendees
As many as 2,029 accredited delegates registered for the festival and industry showcases at the 47th Göteborg Film Festival, and parallel TV and film markets, the largest in the Nordic region. “We’ve never hit this silver line,” said Kullengård. The 18th TV Drama Vision drew 729 delegates, the Nordic Film Market 556.
Ideal New Göteborg Industry Hub
Literally built around Götoborg’s historic Draken Cinema...
Two of their biggest challenges this year – hosting an industry showcase for 700-plus international delegates in a brand-new venue, the Clarion Hotel Draken, and lifting the Nordic industry’s moral by the crisis in the drama sector – had been successfully met. Variety drills down on how and why:
All-Time Record Attendees
As many as 2,029 accredited delegates registered for the festival and industry showcases at the 47th Göteborg Film Festival, and parallel TV and film markets, the largest in the Nordic region. “We’ve never hit this silver line,” said Kullengård. The 18th TV Drama Vision drew 729 delegates, the Nordic Film Market 556.
Ideal New Göteborg Industry Hub
Literally built around Götoborg’s historic Draken Cinema...
- 2/3/2024
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
Writers Johan Fasting, Silje Storstein, and Kristin Grue are the recipients of the 2024 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for their political drama Power Play (Makta).
The trio were awarded the prize Tuesday evening during a ceremony on the first day of the Göteborg Film Festival’s series focused sidebar TV Drama Vision.
As part of the award, they will share a Nok 200 000 (approx € 20 000) award, funded by the Nordisk Film & TV fund. This is the eighth year Göteborg has been the home of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. This year’s jury included Vinca Wiedemann, editor, producer, and screenwriter (Denmark); Joel Spira, actor, (Sweden); Kateryna Vyshnevska, producer (Ukraine); and Charlotte Winberg, journalist and critic (Finland).
Announcing this evening’s win, the jury said: “Choosing a winner from a diverse array of such high-quality drama has been both a privilege and a pleasure for us, the jury. The nominees have...
The trio were awarded the prize Tuesday evening during a ceremony on the first day of the Göteborg Film Festival’s series focused sidebar TV Drama Vision.
As part of the award, they will share a Nok 200 000 (approx € 20 000) award, funded by the Nordisk Film & TV fund. This is the eighth year Göteborg has been the home of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. This year’s jury included Vinca Wiedemann, editor, producer, and screenwriter (Denmark); Joel Spira, actor, (Sweden); Kateryna Vyshnevska, producer (Ukraine); and Charlotte Winberg, journalist and critic (Finland).
Announcing this evening’s win, the jury said: “Choosing a winner from a diverse array of such high-quality drama has been both a privilege and a pleasure for us, the jury. The nominees have...
- 1/30/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
“Power Play” – a scathing, scabrous chronicle of Gro Harlem Brundtland unlikely climb to power as Norway and Scandinavia’s first woman prime minister – won the 2024 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for best drama series screenwriting at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival Tuesday night.
Awarded at the fest’s TV Drama Vision, the prize went to the satirical series’ main writers Johan Fasting, Silje Storstein and Kristin Grue. The Nordic drama series screenwriting award carries a cash prize of €20,000.
With the Nftfp win, “Power Play,” like “Blackport” before it, completes a double of winning a top TV fest in Europe – it walked off with best series at Canneseries last year – and then the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize.
While Nordic Noir exposed human evil festering below Scandinavia’s acclaimed social democracy, “Power Play” underscores a more recent TV phenomenon of exposing the myth to that model and its decline via comedy and farce.
Awarded at the fest’s TV Drama Vision, the prize went to the satirical series’ main writers Johan Fasting, Silje Storstein and Kristin Grue. The Nordic drama series screenwriting award carries a cash prize of €20,000.
With the Nftfp win, “Power Play,” like “Blackport” before it, completes a double of winning a top TV fest in Europe – it walked off with best series at Canneseries last year – and then the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize.
While Nordic Noir exposed human evil festering below Scandinavia’s acclaimed social democracy, “Power Play” underscores a more recent TV phenomenon of exposing the myth to that model and its decline via comedy and farce.
- 1/30/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Tomas Alfredson, the director of Let The Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is adapting the 2000 feature Faithless — directed by Liv Ullmann from a script by Oscar winner Ingmar Bergman — as a limited TV series.
The series, written by Sara Johnsen (July 22) will explore the tale of love and adultery told in the original film — about the actress Marianne Vogler, married to the acclaimed conductor Markus Vogler, who begins an affair with her husband’s best friend, David Howard — while expanding the story to follow the main characters 40 years on to see the consequences of their actions for themselves and their families. The series will move between the present day and back to the original events, which lie four decades in the past.
Lena Endre will reprise her role as Marianne for the series with Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solace) playing the older David Howard. Young David will...
The series, written by Sara Johnsen (July 22) will explore the tale of love and adultery told in the original film — about the actress Marianne Vogler, married to the acclaimed conductor Markus Vogler, who begins an affair with her husband’s best friend, David Howard — while expanding the story to follow the main characters 40 years on to see the consequences of their actions for themselves and their families. The series will move between the present day and back to the original events, which lie four decades in the past.
Lena Endre will reprise her role as Marianne for the series with Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solace) playing the older David Howard. Young David will...
- 8/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lena Endre will reprise the role of Marianne in Tomas Alfredson’s TV adaptation of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman’s 2000 film “Faithless,” Variety can reveal exclusively.
Filming has officially commenced on the production from Fremantle’s Miso Film, in which Endre will star as Older Marianne alongside Jesper Christensen as Older David. Young Marianne will be played by Frida Gustavsson, while Gustav Lindh (“Queen of Hearts”) is portraying Young David.
The six-episode series will be told in two time periods, and, according to its official description, “explores the relationship between love and passion.”
“In the present-day storyline, the renowned director David Howard, 73, is reunited with his former great love, actress Marianne Vogler, 75,” the description continues. “Their meeting forces them to confront the painful consequences of their previous relationship – not just for themselves, but for their families. Forty years prior, in the main story, a young David, and Marianne fall...
Filming has officially commenced on the production from Fremantle’s Miso Film, in which Endre will star as Older Marianne alongside Jesper Christensen as Older David. Young Marianne will be played by Frida Gustavsson, while Gustav Lindh (“Queen of Hearts”) is portraying Young David.
The six-episode series will be told in two time periods, and, according to its official description, “explores the relationship between love and passion.”
“In the present-day storyline, the renowned director David Howard, 73, is reunited with his former great love, actress Marianne Vogler, 75,” the description continues. “Their meeting forces them to confront the painful consequences of their previous relationship – not just for themselves, but for their families. Forty years prior, in the main story, a young David, and Marianne fall...
- 8/23/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Norwegian writer-director Kenneth Karlstad has won the 2023 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for his gritty coming-of-age series Kids in Crime.
Karlstad was awarded the prize Wednesday evening during a ceremony on the first day of the Göteborg Film Festival’s series focused sidebar TV Drama Vision.
As part of the award, Karlstad receives a Nok 200,000 cash prize, funded by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
This is the seventh year Göteborg has been awarded the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. This year’s jury comprised actor Amanda Collin, producer Nebojša Taraba, journalist Wanda Bendjelloul, and producer Leif Holst Jensen.
Announcing Karlstad’s win, the jury said: “We have based our evaluation on three main criteria: craft, relevance, and originality. The winner has it all. It’s based on a true universe from a certain time. The authenticity, honesty, brutality, and friendship drive the story and engage the audience. Accuracy, details,...
Karlstad was awarded the prize Wednesday evening during a ceremony on the first day of the Göteborg Film Festival’s series focused sidebar TV Drama Vision.
As part of the award, Karlstad receives a Nok 200,000 cash prize, funded by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
This is the seventh year Göteborg has been awarded the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize. This year’s jury comprised actor Amanda Collin, producer Nebojša Taraba, journalist Wanda Bendjelloul, and producer Leif Holst Jensen.
Announcing Karlstad’s win, the jury said: “We have based our evaluation on three main criteria: craft, relevance, and originality. The winner has it all. It’s based on a true universe from a certain time. The authenticity, honesty, brutality, and friendship drive the story and engage the audience. Accuracy, details,...
- 2/1/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless is getting a TV adaptation from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Snowman), Sweden’s public broadcaster Svt and Denmark-based production company Miso Film (Netflix’s The Rain), part of Bertelsmann-owned Rtl Group’s Fremantle, unveiled Monday.
They are set to co-produce the drama series, with Alfredson responsible for directing all six 45-minute episodes and Norway’s Sara Johnsen (July 22) writing the script.
The project will explore the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle. “David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne,” according to the plot summary. “David and Marianne’s love affair has painful consequences for two families. The characters are driven by lust, jealousy, betrayal and love.”
“Sometime during the winter of 2001, I contacted Ingmar Bergman and asked if I could reinterpret his story.
Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless is getting a TV adaptation from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Snowman), Sweden’s public broadcaster Svt and Denmark-based production company Miso Film (Netflix’s The Rain), part of Bertelsmann-owned Rtl Group’s Fremantle, unveiled Monday.
They are set to co-produce the drama series, with Alfredson responsible for directing all six 45-minute episodes and Norway’s Sara Johnsen (July 22) writing the script.
The project will explore the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle. “David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne,” according to the plot summary. “David and Marianne’s love affair has painful consequences for two families. The characters are driven by lust, jealousy, betrayal and love.”
“Sometime during the winter of 2001, I contacted Ingmar Bergman and asked if I could reinterpret his story.
- 7/4/2022
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let the Right One In,” is set to direct a TV series adapted from “Faithless,” a 2000 film written by Ingmar Bergman and directed by Liv Ullman.
Miso Film, a Fremantle company, is producing with Swedish broadcaster Svt.
Sara Johnsen (“July 22”) is writing the script of the six-part series. The project was revealed on July 2 at the annual Bergman Week on Fårö island, where Sara Johnsen, Tomas Alfredson and Svt’s head of drama Anna Croneman discussed the series.
“Faithless” explores the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle. David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne. David and Marianne’s love affair has painful consequences for two families.
“Sometime during the winter of 2001, I contacted Ingmar Bergman and asked if I could reinterpret his story. Initially he said it sounded like “a drunken idea,...
Miso Film, a Fremantle company, is producing with Swedish broadcaster Svt.
Sara Johnsen (“July 22”) is writing the script of the six-part series. The project was revealed on July 2 at the annual Bergman Week on Fårö island, where Sara Johnsen, Tomas Alfredson and Svt’s head of drama Anna Croneman discussed the series.
“Faithless” explores the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle. David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne. David and Marianne’s love affair has painful consequences for two families.
“Sometime during the winter of 2001, I contacted Ingmar Bergman and asked if I could reinterpret his story. Initially he said it sounded like “a drunken idea,...
- 7/4/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Faithless’ Adapted For TV By Svt & ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ Director Tomas Alfredson
Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless is being given the TV adaptation treatment by Swedish pubcaster Svt, with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy director Tomas Alfredson attached for all six episodes. Fremantle-owned The Rain producer Miso Film is behind the 6 x 45-minute adaptation of the 2000 Cannes entry, which explores the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle as David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne, leading to painful consequences for the two families. The story is loosely based on pioneering Swedish director Bergman’s experiences of adultery. The Occupation’s Sara Johnsen is writing. “Now it is finally time to make a television series of Ingmar Bergman’s shocking love triangle drama,” said Alfredson, who was also behind Let the Right One In. “I have a hard...
Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless is being given the TV adaptation treatment by Swedish pubcaster Svt, with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy director Tomas Alfredson attached for all six episodes. Fremantle-owned The Rain producer Miso Film is behind the 6 x 45-minute adaptation of the 2000 Cannes entry, which explores the relationship between passion and love through an erotic triangle as David falls in love with his best friend Mark’s wife, the beautiful Marianne, leading to painful consequences for the two families. The story is loosely based on pioneering Swedish director Bergman’s experiences of adultery. The Occupation’s Sara Johnsen is writing. “Now it is finally time to make a television series of Ingmar Bergman’s shocking love triangle drama,” said Alfredson, who was also behind Let the Right One In. “I have a hard...
- 7/4/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Reciprocating an exchange which saw Series Mania 2019 Co-Pro Pitching winner “Capturing Big Mouth” participate at this year’s Berlin CoPro Series, German project “Transitniki” will make the return trip to Lille next month, having been selected by Series Mania representatives in Berlin.
From Germany’s Rohfilm Factory, “Transitniki” is set in 1985, behind the Iron Curtain, and tracks groups of thrill-seeking young East Germans, feeling trapped in their own country, who find a way to enter the Soviet Union illegally using transit visas. There, they are able to satiate their desires for travel and adventure in Russia’s untamed wilds.
The series is written by an experienced trio of TV screenwriters in Heide Schwochow, Constantin Lieb and Christian Mackrodt. There is no one creator, no showrunner and no head writer. In fact, when producer Karsten Stöter was putting his writers’ room together, some told him his democratic methodology for screenwriting would never work.
From Germany’s Rohfilm Factory, “Transitniki” is set in 1985, behind the Iron Curtain, and tracks groups of thrill-seeking young East Germans, feeling trapped in their own country, who find a way to enter the Soviet Union illegally using transit visas. There, they are able to satiate their desires for travel and adventure in Russia’s untamed wilds.
The series is written by an experienced trio of TV screenwriters in Heide Schwochow, Constantin Lieb and Christian Mackrodt. There is no one creator, no showrunner and no head writer. In fact, when producer Karsten Stöter was putting his writers’ room together, some told him his democratic methodology for screenwriting would never work.
- 2/26/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Norwegian helmer-writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Beware Of Children,” a complex, almost novelistic examination of how people reveal their true colors under pressure when crisis strikes, came away the biggest winner at the 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the generously endowed best Nordic film prize.
The film’s lead actress, Henriette Steenstrup, also nabbed the fest’s award for best actor for her role as a compromised school principal at a Göteborg Film Festival prize ceremony which took place Saturday night.
The endearing Swedish film “Uje,” from debuting feature director Henrik Schyffert, also claimed two prizes: the Fipresci critics’ nod and the audience choice award for a film in the Nordic competition. Popular musician and radio host Uje Brandelius, who wrote the script and most of the film’s songs, stars along with his real-life family in a creative, meta-fiction version of his life.
Norwegian DoP Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen...
The film’s lead actress, Henriette Steenstrup, also nabbed the fest’s award for best actor for her role as a compromised school principal at a Göteborg Film Festival prize ceremony which took place Saturday night.
The endearing Swedish film “Uje,” from debuting feature director Henrik Schyffert, also claimed two prizes: the Fipresci critics’ nod and the audience choice award for a film in the Nordic competition. Popular musician and radio host Uje Brandelius, who wrote the script and most of the film’s songs, stars along with his real-life family in a creative, meta-fiction version of his life.
Norwegian DoP Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen...
- 2/1/2020
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Buzzy works-in-progress presentations include Lamb from Iceland and The Innocents from Norway.
Beware Of Children, directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film in Goteborg tonight (1 Feb).
The prize money of $104,000 (Sek 1m) makes it the world’s largest film prize. The backers are Volvo Car Group, Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.
The jury, led by Mia Hansen-Love, said Beware Of Children was “inspiring reflection about the intricacy of education from an adult perspective. It questions the innocence of one’s childhood in a captivating way. Human relationships...
Beware Of Children, directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film in Goteborg tonight (1 Feb).
The prize money of $104,000 (Sek 1m) makes it the world’s largest film prize. The backers are Volvo Car Group, Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.
The jury, led by Mia Hansen-Love, said Beware Of Children was “inspiring reflection about the intricacy of education from an adult perspective. It questions the innocence of one’s childhood in a captivating way. Human relationships...
- 2/1/2020
- by 1100142¦Wendy Mitchell¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
The writer of the series, Sara Johnsen, has snagged the circa €20,000 award in a competition that included four other Nordic series. At the 43rd Göteborg Film Festival, and on the first day of TV Drama Vision, the Norwegian TV series 22 July emerged as the winner of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, given out for the fourth time in a row. The award, worth Nok 200,000, was bestowed upon writer Sara Johnsen, for “outstanding writing of a Nordic drama series”. Johnsen, who is one of the best-known Norwegian filmmakers, wrote and directed the award-winning features Kissed by Winter, Upperdog and All That Matters Is Past, before joining the writing team of the successful Norwegian political thriller series Occupied. The six-part series 22 July, which Johnsen co-created with the director of the series, Pål Sletaune (Next Door), is her first TV drama as head writer. The jury...
Norway’s Sara Johnsen has won the 2020 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for her writing on Nrk’s “22 July,” a six-part painstaking – and often inevitably pained – reconstruction using fictional composite characters but often meticulously recreated scenes of how Norway reacted to its 2011 terror attacks.
The award, for outstanding screenwriting, was presented to Johnsen at a ceremony on Wednesday evening at the TV Drama Vision section of this week’s Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden. The kudos comes with a Nok 200,000 cash endowment.
Best known as the writer-director of award-winning feature films – “Kissed by Winter”, “Upperdog,” “All That Matters is Past” – Johnsen served as head writer on “22 July,” a series created for Norwegian pubcaster production arm Nrk Drama by Johnsen and Pål Sletaune and directed by Sletaune. It is distributed by the U.K.-based Drg, part of the Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent).
Not to be confused with Paul Greengrass’ Netflix movie,...
The award, for outstanding screenwriting, was presented to Johnsen at a ceremony on Wednesday evening at the TV Drama Vision section of this week’s Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden. The kudos comes with a Nok 200,000 cash endowment.
Best known as the writer-director of award-winning feature films – “Kissed by Winter”, “Upperdog,” “All That Matters is Past” – Johnsen served as head writer on “22 July,” a series created for Norwegian pubcaster production arm Nrk Drama by Johnsen and Pål Sletaune and directed by Sletaune. It is distributed by the U.K.-based Drg, part of the Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent).
Not to be confused with Paul Greengrass’ Netflix movie,...
- 1/29/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
On Friday, July 22 2011, Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian, drove a white van from Skoyen to the Government quarter in Oslo, where he parked at 3.17 pm. In the van was a 2,100 pound home-made bomb, with a seven-minute fuse, whose explosion killed eight people. He then travelled to the island of Utoya, then hosting a camp of the Labour Party’s teen Workers’ Youth League, where he shot dead 77 campers, mostly teenagers. Some ran, swam or begged for their lives, others played dead.
Produced by Norwegian pubcaster production arm Nrk Drama, created by Sara Johnsen and Pål Sletaune, and distributed by the U.K.-based Drg, part of the Nordic Entertainment Group, drama series “22 July” is not to be confused with Paul Greengrass’ Netflix movie. It’s a very different proposition, recording rather the reactions of its ensemble cast – Aline and Harald, two journalists at Oslo’s Aftenposten newspaper, Norway0s biggest newspaper; Anne Cathrine,...
Produced by Norwegian pubcaster production arm Nrk Drama, created by Sara Johnsen and Pål Sletaune, and distributed by the U.K.-based Drg, part of the Nordic Entertainment Group, drama series “22 July” is not to be confused with Paul Greengrass’ Netflix movie. It’s a very different proposition, recording rather the reactions of its ensemble cast – Aline and Harald, two journalists at Oslo’s Aftenposten newspaper, Norway0s biggest newspaper; Anne Cathrine,...
- 1/10/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Directors UK, the trade body for Brit screen directors, has named Andy Harrower as its new CEO following the retirement of Andrew Chowns after 10 years in the role. Harrower is joining from his position as director of licensing at collecting society Prs for Music, and is seen as a leader in the field of rights management. At Prs, he has been responsible for securing more than £250m ($330m) per year in royalties for music composers, songwriters and publishers, leading negotiations with the major UK broadcasters and Svod companies. Directors UK collects and distributes royalty payments for its more than 7,000 members and also offers services including campaigning, commercial negotiations, legal advice, events, training and career development. Steve Smith, Directors UK chair, said on the hire, “Andy has very significant expertise in collective rights management and is a passionate advocate and champion of creators’ rights. He is an energetic leader with a...
- 12/17/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Dr’s “When the Dust Settles,” Nrk’s “22. Juli” and Svt’s “Caliphate” will compete for 2020’s 4th Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, as terrorism strikes to the heart of three of the five Nordic dramas nominated for the award for outstanding screenwriting announced at Sweden’s Göteborg.Film Festival on Jan. 29.
Two other titles – Yle/Mediapro’s “The Paradise” and Ruv’s ”Happily Never After” – chart halting spiritual recovery – after caring for years for a loved one and separation in marriage respectively.
Winners of the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award will receive a €20,000 cash prize, announced during the Göteborg Film & TV Festival’s TV Drama Vision, a highlight of the festival, and part of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s 30th anniversary celebrations
First episodes of all the series will screen at the Göteborg Festival.
”With the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, the Fund wants to celebrate the art of script writing,...
Two other titles – Yle/Mediapro’s “The Paradise” and Ruv’s ”Happily Never After” – chart halting spiritual recovery – after caring for years for a loved one and separation in marriage respectively.
Winners of the Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award will receive a €20,000 cash prize, announced during the Göteborg Film & TV Festival’s TV Drama Vision, a highlight of the festival, and part of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s 30th anniversary celebrations
First episodes of all the series will screen at the Göteborg Festival.
”With the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, the Fund wants to celebrate the art of script writing,...
- 12/17/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Scandinavian series exploring crime, family drama and terrorism, both foreign and domestic, are among the nominees for the Nordic Drama series outstanding writing honor, one of Scandinavia's top TV awards.
The award, handed out by pan-Scandinavian funding group the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, picks the best TV writing from across the region, nominating writing from a series from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.
This year's nominees include Norway's Sara Johnsen for her script for July 22, a Nrk drama based on the real-life 2011 terrorist attack, in which a Norwegian far-right extremist killed some 77 people;...
The award, handed out by pan-Scandinavian funding group the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, picks the best TV writing from across the region, nominating writing from a series from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.
This year's nominees include Norway's Sara Johnsen for her script for July 22, a Nrk drama based on the real-life 2011 terrorist attack, in which a Norwegian far-right extremist killed some 77 people;...
- 12/17/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The Ace Series Special is running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.
European producers organisation Ace Producers has unveiled the selection of sixteen producers who will participate in its inaugural TV drama-focused initiative, the Ace Series Special, running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.
The programme is aimed at experienced producers who want to create a series division within their film companies and, or deepen their knowledge of developing and producing TV drama series for an international audience. Each participant will attend with a series project in the early stages of development
They include Belgium’s Bart Van Langendonck at Savage Film, who will...
European producers organisation Ace Producers has unveiled the selection of sixteen producers who will participate in its inaugural TV drama-focused initiative, the Ace Series Special, running Nov 4-9 in Brussels.
The programme is aimed at experienced producers who want to create a series division within their film companies and, or deepen their knowledge of developing and producing TV drama series for an international audience. Each participant will attend with a series project in the early stages of development
They include Belgium’s Bart Van Langendonck at Savage Film, who will...
- 9/10/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Heartstone and Norwegian film-makers win big in Lübeck; Austerlitz takes home Golden Dove at Leipzig.
Lübeck’s 58th Nordic Film Days (Nov 2-6) has become the latest successful stop for Icelandic filmmaker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s Heartstone after premiering in the Venice Days in September and picking up three awards at Warsaw Film Festival last month.
Gudmundsson’s debut was awarded the €12,500 Ndr Film Prize by a jury including Swedish actress Inger Nilsson (who played the title role of Pippi Longstocking in the classic children’s films when she was nine years old), Munich-based producer Jörg Bundschuh (The Fencer) and film director Marc Brummund (Sanctuary), for a “feature film of special artistic quality”.
The intensely moving coming of age tale, which takes place over one summer at a remote fishing village in Iceland, is being handled by Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique.
Three nods for Norway
Elsewhere, Norwegian filmmakers took home three awards from the largest Nordic...
Lübeck’s 58th Nordic Film Days (Nov 2-6) has become the latest successful stop for Icelandic filmmaker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s Heartstone after premiering in the Venice Days in September and picking up three awards at Warsaw Film Festival last month.
Gudmundsson’s debut was awarded the €12,500 Ndr Film Prize by a jury including Swedish actress Inger Nilsson (who played the title role of Pippi Longstocking in the classic children’s films when she was nine years old), Munich-based producer Jörg Bundschuh (The Fencer) and film director Marc Brummund (Sanctuary), for a “feature film of special artistic quality”.
The intensely moving coming of age tale, which takes place over one summer at a remote fishing village in Iceland, is being handled by Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique.
Three nods for Norway
Elsewhere, Norwegian filmmakers took home three awards from the largest Nordic...
- 11/7/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Heartstone and Norwegian film-makers win big in Lübeck; Austerlitz takes home Golden Dove at Leipzig.
Lübeck’s 58th Nordic Film Days (Nov 2-6) has become the latest successful stop for Icelandic filmmaker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s Heartstone after premiering in the Venice Days in September and picking up three awards at Warsaw Film Festival last month.
Gudmundsson’s debut was awarded the €12,500 Ndr Film Prize by a jury including Swedish actress Inger Nilsson (who played the title role of Pippi Longstocking in the classic children’s films when she was nine years old), Munich-based producer Jörg Bundschuh (The Fencer) and film director Marc Brummund (Sanctuary), for a “feature film of special artistic quality”.
The intensely moving coming of age tale, which takes place over one summer at a remote fishing village in Iceland, is being handled by Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique.
Three nods for Norway
Elsewhere, Norwegian filmmakers took home three awards from the largest Nordic...
Lübeck’s 58th Nordic Film Days (Nov 2-6) has become the latest successful stop for Icelandic filmmaker Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s Heartstone after premiering in the Venice Days in September and picking up three awards at Warsaw Film Festival last month.
Gudmundsson’s debut was awarded the €12,500 Ndr Film Prize by a jury including Swedish actress Inger Nilsson (who played the title role of Pippi Longstocking in the classic children’s films when she was nine years old), Munich-based producer Jörg Bundschuh (The Fencer) and film director Marc Brummund (Sanctuary), for a “feature film of special artistic quality”.
The intensely moving coming of age tale, which takes place over one summer at a remote fishing village in Iceland, is being handled by Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique.
Three nods for Norway
Elsewhere, Norwegian filmmakers took home three awards from the largest Nordic...
- 11/7/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Nordisk Film & TV Fond has unveiled the list of Nordic graduation students and their projects running for the $30,000 (NOK250,000) pitch prize and $6,000 (Nok 50,000) special mention prize at Nordic Talents (Aug 31-Sept 2).
Petri Kemppinen, Nordisk Film & TV Fond CEO, said: “This year we have many projects targeting children and young audiences, and several comedies. The competition to get in was tougher as for the first time we asked applicants to submit a development plan for their project. I think this was helpful for both the students and the selection group. It is also interesting to note the 60/40 female representation in the submissions and selection.”
In addition to the pitching sessions, Nordic Talents will screen the graduation films of all selected film students.
This year’s Nordic Talents jury comprises Norwegian director/writer Sara Johnsen, Danish animation director/comics artist Anders Morgenthaler, Swedish producer Lars Blomgren of Filmlance, Finnish writer/producer Petja Peltomaa of Yellow Film & TV and Kristina...
Petri Kemppinen, Nordisk Film & TV Fond CEO, said: “This year we have many projects targeting children and young audiences, and several comedies. The competition to get in was tougher as for the first time we asked applicants to submit a development plan for their project. I think this was helpful for both the students and the selection group. It is also interesting to note the 60/40 female representation in the submissions and selection.”
In addition to the pitching sessions, Nordic Talents will screen the graduation films of all selected film students.
This year’s Nordic Talents jury comprises Norwegian director/writer Sara Johnsen, Danish animation director/comics artist Anders Morgenthaler, Swedish producer Lars Blomgren of Filmlance, Finnish writer/producer Petja Peltomaa of Yellow Film & TV and Kristina...
- 6/24/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Framing Mom
Director: Sara Johnsen
Writer: Sara Johnsen
Norwegian director Sara Johnsen has yet to secure Us distribution for her previous three features, including her award winning debut Kissed By Winter (2005), Upperdog (2009), and the enigmatic All That Matters Is Past (2012), which unfortunately didn’t find the critical praise it was worthy of. Offbeat and strange, it’s easy to see why her cinema has had a difficult time securing an international audience, so we’re hoping her next feature, Framing Mom, breaks out of this cycle. This is about the story of Unn Tove, a TV journalist who marries the wrong man and is unfaithful to him at their own wedding. At the same time, a newborn baby, Rose Marie, is left in a restaurant bathroom. Their lives become intertwined, and 16 years later, Unn Tove and Rose Marie begin a search for the young girl’s biological parents.
Cast: Tuva Novotny,...
Director: Sara Johnsen
Writer: Sara Johnsen
Norwegian director Sara Johnsen has yet to secure Us distribution for her previous three features, including her award winning debut Kissed By Winter (2005), Upperdog (2009), and the enigmatic All That Matters Is Past (2012), which unfortunately didn’t find the critical praise it was worthy of. Offbeat and strange, it’s easy to see why her cinema has had a difficult time securing an international audience, so we’re hoping her next feature, Framing Mom, breaks out of this cycle. This is about the story of Unn Tove, a TV journalist who marries the wrong man and is unfaithful to him at their own wedding. At the same time, a newborn baby, Rose Marie, is left in a restaurant bathroom. Their lives become intertwined, and 16 years later, Unn Tove and Rose Marie begin a search for the young girl’s biological parents.
Cast: Tuva Novotny,...
- 1/9/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Framing Mom
Director: Sara Johnsen // Writer: Sara Johnsen
Norwegian director Sara Johnsen has yet to secure Us distribution for her previous three features, including her award winning debut Kissed By Winter (2005), Upperdog (2009), and the enigmatic All That Matters Is Past (2012), which unfortunately didn’t find the critical praise it was worthy of. Offbeat and strange, it’s easy to see why her cinema has had a difficult time securing an international audience, so we’re hoping her next feature, Framing Mom, breaks out of this cycle. This is about the story of Unn Tove, a TV journalist who marries the wrong man and is unfaithful to him at their own wedding. At the same time, a newborn baby, Rose Marie, is left in a restaurant bathroom. Their lives become intertwined, and 16 years later, Unn Tove and Rose Marie begin a search for the young girl’s biological parents
Cast: Tuva Novotny...
Director: Sara Johnsen // Writer: Sara Johnsen
Norwegian director Sara Johnsen has yet to secure Us distribution for her previous three features, including her award winning debut Kissed By Winter (2005), Upperdog (2009), and the enigmatic All That Matters Is Past (2012), which unfortunately didn’t find the critical praise it was worthy of. Offbeat and strange, it’s easy to see why her cinema has had a difficult time securing an international audience, so we’re hoping her next feature, Framing Mom, breaks out of this cycle. This is about the story of Unn Tove, a TV journalist who marries the wrong man and is unfaithful to him at their own wedding. At the same time, a newborn baby, Rose Marie, is left in a restaurant bathroom. Their lives become intertwined, and 16 years later, Unn Tove and Rose Marie begin a search for the young girl’s biological parents
Cast: Tuva Novotny...
- 1/6/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A total of 17 co-productions received a share of $5.8m
The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund is to plough €4.54m ($5.8m) into 16 feature films and one documentary project.
Among the projects selected at the meeting, held from Oct 13-16 in Strasbourg, was Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune (Kollektivet).
The upcoming film from the Danish director of Oscar-nominated The Hunt was recently shopped at Toronto by TrustNordisk
The story, scriped by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt, A Hijacking), focuses on the clash between personal desires versus the solidarity and tolerance in a commune in the mid 1970s.
Cast has yet to be announced and shooting is expected to start later this year,
Eurimages will also support the new film from Corneliu Porumboiu, director of When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism.
His latest project, The Treasure (Comoara), began shooting on 15 October and follows two men as they face a series of misadventures in their quest to find a treasure...
The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund is to plough €4.54m ($5.8m) into 16 feature films and one documentary project.
Among the projects selected at the meeting, held from Oct 13-16 in Strasbourg, was Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune (Kollektivet).
The upcoming film from the Danish director of Oscar-nominated The Hunt was recently shopped at Toronto by TrustNordisk
The story, scriped by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt, A Hijacking), focuses on the clash between personal desires versus the solidarity and tolerance in a commune in the mid 1970s.
Cast has yet to be announced and shooting is expected to start later this year,
Eurimages will also support the new film from Corneliu Porumboiu, director of When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism.
His latest project, The Treasure (Comoara), began shooting on 15 October and follows two men as they face a series of misadventures in their quest to find a treasure...
- 10/21/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
This year’s Toronto was competing in my psyche with the recent loss of my mother. My focus was less on finding the greatest of films this year. I hear from others that the festival offered a good mix, if not the most outstanding, selection of films. Personally, I am discovering that a new community has opened its arms to me and the films that are standing out most for me are by women and about women. My community, those women who have lost their mothers, is sharing a unique and profound rite of passage whose meaning continuously unfolds.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.
18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.
Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.
Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.
Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."
Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.
Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.
Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:
Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.
Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.
Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?
Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%
Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic
Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)
Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)
Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.
Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs
Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide
Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk
Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???
City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???
Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)
90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.
Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.
- 9/21/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Weirdness In the Woods: Johnsen’s Latest an Intriguing, Complicated Love Triangle
Norwegian filmmaker Sara Johnsen’s latest film, All That Matters Is Past is a curiously maddening film about star crossed lovers mixed with a light incestuous streak. While this is mostly an engaging scenario, the serpentine plotting often makes it feel as if it was necessary to fill the slim central conflict with a lot of extra flourishes. That said, Johnsen’s film is more often than not an exquisite examination of an earthy, natural world, one dictated by attraction and decomposition.
Mysteriously, a pair of ragtag forest dwellers in some remote Norwegian woodland quickly construct a trap for something or someone. The man, William (Kristoffer Joner) climbs a tree while his female partner, Janne (Maria Bonnevie) throws him a large rock. Quickly, we learn they mean to use this as a weapon to maim or kill a...
Norwegian filmmaker Sara Johnsen’s latest film, All That Matters Is Past is a curiously maddening film about star crossed lovers mixed with a light incestuous streak. While this is mostly an engaging scenario, the serpentine plotting often makes it feel as if it was necessary to fill the slim central conflict with a lot of extra flourishes. That said, Johnsen’s film is more often than not an exquisite examination of an earthy, natural world, one dictated by attraction and decomposition.
Mysteriously, a pair of ragtag forest dwellers in some remote Norwegian woodland quickly construct a trap for something or someone. The man, William (Kristoffer Joner) climbs a tree while his female partner, Janne (Maria Bonnevie) throws him a large rock. Quickly, we learn they mean to use this as a weapon to maim or kill a...
- 9/14/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sara Johnsen's 2005 debut, Kissed By Winter, may not have blown the doors off the international film world but - blessed with strong performances, a well crafted script and a novel viewpoint on the thriller oriented material - it immediately established its creator as one of the bright young talents in Norway's burgeoning film scene. If only that promise and those strengths were realized in this, her third film, All That Matters Is Past. Janne (Maria Bonnevie) and William (Kristoffer Joner) have been in love since they were children, a love interrupted by tragedy. So how is it that just weeks after their reunion the duo, along with William's brother Ruud, were discovered prone on the forest floor with William dead of blood loss, Ruud...
- 9/7/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Sara Johnsen's 2005 debut, Kissed By Winter, may not have blown the doors off the international film world but - blessed with strong performances, a well crafted script and a novel viewpoint on the thriller oriented material - it immediately established its creator as one of the bright young talents in Norway's burgeoning film scene. If only that promise and those strengths were realized in this, her third film, All That Matters Is Past. Janne (Maria Bonnevie) and William (Kristoffer Joner) have been in love since they were children, a love interrupted by tragedy. So how is it that just weeks after their reunion the duo, along with William's brother Ruud, were discovered prone on the forest floor with William dead of blood loss,...
- 9/7/2012
- Screen Anarchy
A woman wakes next to a river, battered and barely alive, with the bodies of two men prone next to her. So begins the trailer for Sara Johnsen's All That Matters Is Past (Uskyld).The director of Vinterkyss and Upperdog, Johnsen has a well earned reputation for dark and edgy fare that defies easy categorization. Are they thrillers? Dark character dramas? It doesn't really matter, because what they mostly are is very, very good.Janne meets William after many years of separation. She leaves her family to live with him in a cabin by the river and they recreate the feeling of love and lust that they had as children, being sweethearts playing in the woods. When a canoeist by coincidence finds Janne in the forest,...
- 8/28/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
- 8/22/2012
- MUBI
The 37th Toronto International Film Festival® will roll out the red carpet for hundreds of guests from the four corners of the globe in September. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Rian Johnson, Noah Baumbach, Deepa Mehta, Derek Cianfrance, Sion Sono, Joss Whedon, Neil Jordan, Lu Chuan, Shola Lynch, Barry Levinson, Yvan Attal, Ben Affleck, Marina Zenovich, Costa-Gavras, Laurent Cantet, Sally Potter, Dustin Hoffman, Francois Ozon, David O. Russell, David Ayer, Pelin Esmer, Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Andrew Adamson, Michael McGowan, Bahman Ghobadi, Ziad Doueiri, Alex Gibney, Stephen Chbosky, Eran Riklis, Edward Burns, Bernard Émond, Zhang Yuan, Michael Winterbottom, Mike Newell, Miwa Nishikawa, Margarethe Von Trotta, David Siegel, Scott McGehee, Gauri Shinde, Goran Paskaljevic, Baltasar Kormákur, J.A. Bayona, Rob Zombie, Peaches and Paul Andrew Williams.
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
- 8/21/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The globe-trotting section of this year’s Contemporary World Cinema programme has your Sundance (in a pair of excellent titles in Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and James Ponsoldt’s Smashed) and has select items from several sections from this year’s Cannes ranging from Pablo Stoll Ward’s 3, Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle, Aida Begic’s Children of Sarajevo, Catherine Corsini’s Three Worlds, Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love, and they must see In The Fog a masterwork from Sergei Loznitsa and will be padded by world premiere items such as Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did and Sion Sono’s The Land of Hope (see pic above). Here’s the entire list of items that make up this year’s section:
3 Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina North American Premiere For Rodolfo (Humberto de Vargas), life at home feels empty and cold,...
3 Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina North American Premiere For Rodolfo (Humberto de Vargas), life at home feels empty and cold,...
- 8/14/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
If Upperdog has anything to teach us - and it hasn't - apparently no matter how scarred your psyche, how much of a self-centred jerk you might be, all it takes is a screenwriter to scare you up a selflessly devoted manic pixie dream girl and you'll be fine. Impeccably produced, full of pretty people weighed down by a full chorus of crippling neuroses, Upperdog obviously means well but it's torpedoed by an unbelievable preachiness that grates unbearably in no time at all.
It's a love story, or rather two at once, between four young people in Oslo. Axel and Yanne are siblings, Asian children separated at a very young age by their respective adoptive parents. Axel is a child of privilege, working for an advertising firm and supported by rich, indulgent parents who hid his sister's existence from him; Yanne was taken in by a less wealthy family and works at a local restaurant.
It's a love story, or rather two at once, between four young people in Oslo. Axel and Yanne are siblings, Asian children separated at a very young age by their respective adoptive parents. Axel is a child of privilege, working for an advertising firm and supported by rich, indulgent parents who hid his sister's existence from him; Yanne was taken in by a less wealthy family and works at a local restaurant.
- 11/29/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Cologne, Germany -- Roman Polanski's political thriller "The Ghost Writer," Mike Leigh's melancholic drama "Another Year" and Berlin Film Fest winner "Honey" from Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu are among the features on the European Film Academy's 46-title long list for this year's European Film Awards.
Other high-profile films on the Efa long list include Samuel Maoz's Venice Film Fest winner "Lebanon," Stephen Frears' comic-book adaptation "Tamara Drewe" and "Oliver Assayas' five-and-a-half hour terrorist biopic "Carlos."
The 20 countries with the most Efa Members each picked a national feature, with the remaining 12 selected by the Efa selection committee. The 2,300 European Film Academy members will vote for the official nominees, which will be announced at the Sevilla Film Festival in Spain on Nov. 6.
The 23rd European Film Awards will be held in Tallinn, Estonia Dec. 4.
The long list of nominees for the 2010 European Film Awards:
European Film Awards 2010
"3 Seasons In Hell,...
Other high-profile films on the Efa long list include Samuel Maoz's Venice Film Fest winner "Lebanon," Stephen Frears' comic-book adaptation "Tamara Drewe" and "Oliver Assayas' five-and-a-half hour terrorist biopic "Carlos."
The 20 countries with the most Efa Members each picked a national feature, with the remaining 12 selected by the Efa selection committee. The 2,300 European Film Academy members will vote for the official nominees, which will be announced at the Sevilla Film Festival in Spain on Nov. 6.
The 23rd European Film Awards will be held in Tallinn, Estonia Dec. 4.
The long list of nominees for the 2010 European Film Awards:
European Film Awards 2010
"3 Seasons In Hell,...
- 9/9/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Screen Daily has gathered some more details on the upcoming financing slate for the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund. The Ffhsh is a film funding entity that provides subsidies for both features and TV productions that promise high-quality content as well as showcasing the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. As we reported yesterday, the institution has funneled $1.26 million into Fatih Akin’s upcoming comedy Soul Kitchen. That represents the largest single contribution of a $4.8 million initiative to fund new films by local auteurs Tom Tykwer (left), Hans Weingartner (center), and Akin (right). Also included in the allocation is funding for international co-productions helmed by France’s Eleonore Faucher (A Common Thread), Norway's Sara Johnsen (Kissed by Winter) and Poland's Radek Wegrzyn, the lone fresh face of the bunch. Details are scarce on the various projects. Along with the Akin’s comedy, Wegrzyn will be mining for laughs with Father, Son
- 6/11/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
LONDON -- Sara Johnsen's Kissed By Winter (Vinterkyss) will represent Norway in this year's race for best foreign-language Oscar, it was announced Friday. According to the Norwegian Film Institute, the movie "has all the qualities a national Oscar candidate should have. It is fascinating, exciting, profound and beautiful, and the story engages and provokes."...
- 10/2/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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