"Halfway through the run-up to this year's festival, tragedy struck our country with terror attacks on the government quarter and Utøya," said Nina Bræin, the festival's press attaché. Festival organizers found it appropriate to still run the festival as normal, but also decided to join in the national mourning day on August 21 by airing via a live transmission the ceremony in Oslo Spektrum arena to festival participants.
August 21 is also kick off day for the festival's main programme with the screening of Sons of Norway by Jens Lien. The film is one of seven Norwegian titles that will premiere in Haugesund with the closing film Oslo, August 31 by Joachim Trier, and Headhunters by Morten Tyldum, all supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Programme Director Håkon says the high artistic level of the Norwegian films is one of the reasons for Norway's strong hold on the festival's programme.
The children's sidebar re-branded Cinemagi will open with the world premiere of Anders Øvergaard's feature debut Coming Home that shares with the Swedish film She Monkeys - screening in the 15+ sidebar- a portrait of strong girls passionate about horses.
Following last year's successful launch of the Nordic Focus as an official festival sidebar, the strand has been established as a regular item and will screen nine films as Norwegian premieres. Those include the Nordic Talents entries Maybe Tomorrow by Sweden's Mariken Halle and Icelandic Volcano by Rúnar Rúnarsson, as well as Tribeca 2011 winner Turn Me On, Goddammit by Norway's Jannike Systad Jacobsen and Danish comedy Truth About Men by Nikolaj Arcel. Sweden's well established Richard Hobert, an habitué of the festival, will present his latest feature One-Way to Antibes.
As a popular meeting place for local distributors who use the festival to present their latest acquisitions to cinema owners, Haugesund will also screen the Cannes winning films The Tree of Life (SF Norge), Drive (SF Norge) and Polisse (Arthaus).
Key dates of the festival are the New Nordic Films mini-market from August 17-20, the annual Amanda awards ceremony held on August 20, and the announcement of the Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees on August 23 by Nordisk Film & TV Fond and Arthaus.
For further details about the festival's programme, check http://www.filmfestivalen.no/