After receiving the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award in 2013, the Swedish feature project The Giant (pictured - Jätten) by the multi-awarded Johannes Nyholm (Las Palmas, Puppetboy) was just awarded €330,000 from the Council of Europe. Another four Nordic films are among the fund’s 23 supported projects announced on Wednesday.

The Giant is the story of the 30 year-old autistic and severely deformed Rikard, obsessed with petanque and haunted by the loss of his mother, who escapes into an imaginary world where he is a 50-meter tall giant. The project with an estimated budget of SEK20.4 million (€2.2 million) is produced by Garagefilm’s Maria Dahlin and Beofilm's Morten Kjems Juhl in Denmark Filming starts on September 29. TriArt will handle the domestic release and Scanbox the rest of Scandinavia. Paris-based Indie Sales is responsible for world distribution. 

The other Eurimages Nordic grant recipients comprise:
Tordenskiold (Tordenskiold får hund) by Danish director Henrik Ruben Genz awarded €500,000. The story about the 17th Norwegian/Danish naval hero brought to the screen by Norwegian writer Erlend Loe will start filming later this year. Lars Bredo Rahbek is producing for Nimbus Film, with Norway’s Hummel & Nimbus and the Czech Republic’s Sirena Film. SF Norge will handle the domestic release in 2015. 


Louder than Bombs, the English language debut of Norwegian director Joachim Trier, awarded €500,000. In the title roles are Gabriel Byrne and Isabelle Huppert. Motlys in Norway is producing with Denmark’s Nimbus Film and France’s Memento Films. Filming starts in September. 


Ballon by Swedish director Lisa Ohlin awarded €300,000. The love story between a prima ballerina (Cecilie Lassen) and an elite soldier (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) written by Karina Dam, just started filming . The film is produced by Asta Film and Nordisk Film in Denmark in co-production with Sweden’s Illusion Film. Svensk Filmindustri has Scandinavian rights and TrustNordisk handles sales.


Land of Mine (Under sandet) by Danish director Martin Zandvliet, awarded €206,000. The Danish/German WW2 drama tackles a dark chapter of Danish history when in May 1945 young German prisoners of war were forced to clear land-mines on the West Coast of Denmark. Roland Møller (Northwest) has the title role. The project set to start filming in July is produced by Nordisk Film production’s Mikael Ries, in co-production with Germany’s Amusement Park Film and Goethe GmbH.

Minority Nordic co-productions supported by Eurimages include the Estonian children’s film Supilinna Salaselts by Margus Paju co-produced by Finland’s Solar Films and the Turkish film Bugday by Semih Kaplanoglou co-produced by Sweden’s The Chimney Pot.