2024 Venice line-up bringing in big-name Nordic directors

When it comes to all things cinema, a yearly indication of the end of summer and the start of autumn is the Venice International Film Festival. The weather’s still warm (at times warmer than a Nordic summer), and the beaches along the lagoon are full of visitors in bathing suits. Meanwhile, around the area of the Palazzo del Casinò, other visitors, at times in full evening dress, gather to experience the latest and finest within world cinema, as has been tradition since 1932.

Kicking off for the 81st time August 28, Venice offers a grand and often star-studded main competition and two main parallel sections, Orizzonti and Giornate degli Autori/Venice Days, both with special focus on innovative, original and independent filmmaking. Other special sections offer both classics and immersive experiences, all in manageable amount. Keeping the programme trim rather than overwhelming, yet not shying away from the experimental, the reflective or at times quite lengthy are all traits that set Venice apart, to worldwide appreciation.

“It struck me how comparatively few films there are,” confirms Swedish documentary director Göran Hugo Olsson, whose titles The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), Concerning Violence (Om våld, 2014) and That Summer (Den sommaren, 2017) have all played Berlin. Olsson makes his Venice debut this year with Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 (Israel Palestina i svensk tv 1958-1989), entered in the Out of Competition non-fiction section together with works by ten other directors, including Amos Gitai, Asif Kapadia and Errol Morris (an Olsson admirer). “While Berlin really jam their programme, which in itself is cool, Venice feels so much more exclusive.”

Olsson has developed a specialty in assembling archive material, on several occasions from Swedish television during the national broadcaster monopoly years, in order to present a historical scenario. With Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, he does just that, only the historical suddenly turned topical last October (the project was by then well into its fifth year). “At the announcement of the Venice 2024 selection in July, the film was presented as ‘100% objective’ – if that’s at all possible. The Venice delegation watched the film twice before making a decision, and on a big screen. They even came to Stockholm to visit me. They are quite old-fashioned that way, and I mean that in the very best of respects.” Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 is produced by Tobias Janson for Story with co-production by SVT, Film i Väst and Tekele Productions, Finland. The film is supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and will also be broadcast in an extended version.

Also supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond is the Venice debut by Denmark’s Thomas Vinterberg, who took Cannes by storm with The Celebration(Festen) in 1998 and has had a string of titles premiering in both Cannes and Berlin through the years. Families Like Ours (Familier som vores) is his first series, a seven-episode account of a natural disaster hitting Denmark in the shape of a flood that will gradually put the entire country under water. At the centre of the story, a Danish family struggles to deal with this new reality. A big-name cast includes national luminaries such as Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, David Dencik, Asta Kamma August, Esben Smed and many others, several of whom will be attending the festival.

The notion of premiering a story about a flood at a festival situated on water has not been lost on the director. “It perfectly shows the sense of defiance that this place has, and an enduring spirit, which is very inspiring – not least in the unstable times we live in,” Vinterberg stated after receiving the invitation. As is Venice custom, at least going back to Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), the series will screen in its entirety at the festival, out of competition. Zentropa with Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing are the main producers, with co-production by Studiocanal, Canal+ and TV 2 Denmark, which will broadcast the national TV premiere later this autumn. Families Like Ours will also hit the big screen at this year’s Toronto.

Norway, the only Nordic country selected for the 2024 main competition, hasn’t been present in this section since X by Oddvar Einarson – in 1986. Icebreaker Dag Johan Haugerud made his Venice debut in the Venice Days section in 2019 with Beware of Children (Barn), and played Berlin in 2024 with the instantly multi-awarded Sex, the first instalment in a trilogy called Sex, Dreams and Love (Sex, Drømmer og Kjærlighet), described as “three interconnected stories exploring themes of sexuality, longing and transgression in modern Nordic society”. Not entirely adhering to the title order, Haugerud now presents Love (Kjærlighet), starring Andrea Bræin Hovig and Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, and despite the title, the film deals quite a bit with casual sex, its rewards and pleasures.

Haugerud, too, brings up the presence of water in his Venice entry: “Since a large part of the story takes place on the Oslo Fjord, between the Town Hall pier and the Nesodden peninsula, it feels like the film has an atmosphere and character that will suit Venice. At least, I hope so.” Judging by the notable praise received during his last Venice visit, Haugerud seems likely to further strengthen his stance as one of Europe’s foremost directors-to-watch, water or not. As usual when it comes to Haugerud’s work, Yngve Sæther, together with Hege Hauff Hvattum, produces for Motlys, with Nordisk Film & TV Fond supporting the full trilogy, planned for completion by the time of next year’s Berlin.

Two shorts, both by tall-standing Nordic names, also appear in the 2024 Venice line-up. Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson, fresh from his 2024 Cannes favourite When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot), presents O (Iceland/Sweden), which plays in the Orizzonti competition. Production is by Compass Films and Halibut slf in co-production with [sic] film, Sweden. Out of competition is the unstoppable Dane machine Nicolas Winding Refn, who, after directing Touch of Crude for Prada in 2022, returns to a Danish-Italian short film collaboration in Beauty is Not a Sin, produced by byNWR and Max Brun - Art+Vibes, Italy. Winding Refn, who invigorated Venice in 2009 with Valhalla Rising, will also present his much-copied but hardly equalled debut Pusher (1996) in the Venice Classics section.

The Biennale College Cinema Immersive section presents Michelle and Uri Kranot’s Garden Alchemy, a Danish production by Peter Fisher, TinDrum Animation, Khora Contemporary and The Animation Workshop/VIA UC, presented at LAB-2023-2024 at CPH:DOX.

Co-productions with Nordic participation appearing at Venice 2024 are the Argentinian competition entry Kill the Jockey(El Jockey) by Luis Ortega (Argentina/ Mexico/Spain/Denmark/USA) and Basileia (Italy/Sweden/Denmark) by Isabella Torre (Venice Days), both with co-production by Snowglobe’s Katrin Pors, Denmark. Songs of Slow Burning Earth(Pisni zemli, shcho povilno horyt) (Ukraine/Denmark/Sweden) by Olha Zhurba (Orizzonti non-fiction) has co-production by Final Cut for Real, Denmark and We Have a Plan, Sweden. Quiet Life(France/Germany/Sweden/Greece/Estonia/Finland) by Alexandros Avranas (Orizzonti), has co-production by Fox in the Snow, Sweden and Making Movies, Finland, and Pooja, Sir (Nepal/USA/Norway) by Deepak Rauniyar (Orizzonti) has co-production by Tannhauser Gate, Norway.

Film i Väst, Sweden, has co-production credits in all five titles in Venice this year: Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, Families Like Ours, Quiet Life, Basileia and O.