The new Norwegian company has signed an output deal with SF Studios for their upcoming film slate.

The new Norwegian feature film production outfit The Film Company is a joint-partnership between The Oslo Company and the trio -writer/director Henrik M. Dahlsbakken (Returning Home, Cave), his brother cinematographer Oskar Dahlsbakken, and producer Åsmund Kjos Fjell.

The Dahlsbakken brothers and Kjos Fjell were earlier running the company FilmBros and will be upping their feature ambitions through The Film Company.

Meanwhile the new venture is the opportunity for the high-profile advertising and TV production outfit The Oslo Company, to expand into feature film. The company co-founded in 2016 by Trond H. Kvernstrøm and Christian Steen, is behind Netflix’s hit TV series Home for Christmas season 1&2.

Kvernstrøm told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “Meeting Henrik gave me the energy to go back into feature film production. I have had some previous experience from that genre in my time with Monster and Nordisk Film. Now that some of the streaming platforms are opening up a need for feature films, and through our partnership with Henrik, I really want to invest in getting The Film Company up and running on a national and the international level. As for The Oslo Company, it’s business as usual. We will continue to develop and produce TV-drama and non-scripted stories and to further develop our ad-agency.”

Dahlsbakken said: “After producing eight feature films in the last six years, the day has come to upgrade FilmBros to The Film Company. Together with SF Studios and strong creative forces in The Oslo Company, we will take the company to new heights, without losing our regional roots and international ambitions. SF Studios has been an invaluable partner in recent years, and I am particularly pleased that we are now further formalising this alliance through an output deal. I have sky-high expectations of what this consolidation will entail in terms of strong and unique stories for the big screen.”

"Henrik lives and breathes film. His constant drive, unpredictability, playfulness and cinematic power make him one of the most interesting filmmakers in Norway today,” said Yaba Holst, Head of Nordic Acquisition at SF Studios. “It is with great expectation that we at SF Studios continue our close collaboration, as part of our strategy to support young talents who want to communicate with their audience.”

Dahlsbakken is currently doing the sound mix on his biggest project to date, the epic horror Possession, which he considers as “his best work to date.”

The film is set in a small Sami village during the Spanish flu of 1918. A pastor returns home to his family in Norway to start a congregation, after several years spent working as a missionary in Madagascar. With the help of a local mining company, he starts building a church, but the place turns out to be an old South Sami burial ground.

Toplining the cast are Tarjei Sandvik Moe (Skam, The Affair), Jan Sælid (Norsemen) Dennis Storhøi (The Heavy Water War), Benjamin Helstad (Ragnarok), Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Blind), Nina Ellen Ødegård (State of Happiness) and 10-year-old newcomer Eva Nergård. REinvent International Sales handles sales.

SF Studios will release it in February 2022.