Joshua Oppenheimer, Daniel Espinosa among latest Fund recipients

Feature Film Support

• The End
  Grant: NOK 3,000,000
  Recipient: Final Cut for Real, Denmark
  Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen
  Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
  Writers: Joshua Oppenheimer, Rasmus Heisterberg
  Cast: Tilda Swinton, George Mackay, Stephen Graham
  World sales: The Match Factory
  Logline: The English-language debut of double Oscar-nominated Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) is described as a Golden Age musical about the last human family. There is a mother, father, and their son (20), born in their palatial bunker and who has never seen the outside world. There is a maid, with whom the son has his only honest relationship. There is also a doctor, a butler, and finally a young woman who, having barely survived, manages to find her way in.
  
  The Final Cut for Real film is co-produced by Germany’s Pola Pandora Filmproduktion and Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Pictures, with support among others from the Danish Film Institute and Germany’s Film & Medienstiftung NRW.

• Madame Luna
  Grant: NOK 1,500,000
  Recipient: Momento Film, Sweden
  Producer: David Herdies
  Director: Daniel Espinosa
  Writers: Maurizio Braucci, Suha Arraf
  Domestic distribution: Nordisk Film
  Logline: Inspired by true events, Madame Luna is a drama about an Eritrean refugee who, after a failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean, is washed ashore in Libya and eventually becomes one of the most infamous refugee smugglers in the region. When the regime in Libya falls, Madame Luna again has to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, once again a refugee. Once in Italy, she soon climbs within the illegal network that exploits migrants, and in the end, she has to choose between a prosperous life in the mafia or saving the young Eritrean girl Eli who forces Luna to face her past.
  
  Seasoned director Daniel Espinosa (Morbius, Easy Money) is set to start filming in August this ambitious drama based on a script by Maurizio Braucci (Gomorrah) and Suha Arraf (Lemon Tree) from an idea by Binyam Berhane.
  
  The film is co-produced by Italy’s Dugong Films, Germany’s Nadcon and Denmark’s Adomeit Film, Film i Väst, with co-financing from C More, SVT, DR, the Swedish Film Institute, Nordisk Film Distribution, Creative Europe, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Sicilian Film Commission - Regione Sicilia, Calabria Film Commission - Regione Calabria, and Italian tax credit. Delivery is set for May 2023.

• The Land of Short Sentences (Meter i sekundet)
  Grant: NOK 1, 500, 000
  Recipient: Nordisk Film Production, Denmark
  Producers: Trin Hjortkjær Thomsen, Camilla Hammerich
  Director: Hella Joof
  Writers: Jenny Lund Madsen, Ida Maria Rydén
  Main cast: Sofie Torp, Thomas Hwan, Lotte Andersen, Bodil Jørgensen, Maria Rossing.
  Domestic distribution: Nordisk Film
  Logline: The film is based on Stine Pilgaard’s award-winning novel Meter i sekundet, which sold over 150,000 copies in Denmark. It’s a fish-out-of-water story about Marie (35), who gets her life turned upside down when she - slightly reluctantly – relocates to an outlying, bewildering community in West Jutland, as her partner has been hired to teach.
  
  The film received support from the Danish Film Institute, DR, Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality, and the West Danish Film Fund. The domestic premiere is set for winter 2023.
• Getaways and Dreams (Pakoja & Haaveita)
  Grant: NOK 600, 000
  Recipient: Inland Film Company, Finland
  Producer: Klaus Heydemann
  Writer/director: Kaisa El Ramly
  Domestic distribution: Aurora Studios
  Logline: On a summer day on a road, we follow nine characters, dreaming of life or escaping it, an old dog on the loose and a hitch-hiker. After having come face-to-face with life’s randomness, they awaken to appreciate the value and strength of their own limited existence.
  
  Rising Finnish talent Kaisa El Ramly won the Nordic Talents Pitch Award 2016 for the initial idea of Getaways and Dreams. The film co-produced by Läsk in Sweden is co-financed so far by the Finnish Film Foundation, Yle, Helsinki-based Aurora Studios and Folkets Bio in Sweden. The domestic release is set for late 2023.

Drama Series Support

• Evil (Ondskan)
  Format: 6x45’
  Grant: NOK 2,000,000
  Recipient: SF Studios Production, Sweden
  Head Writer: Fredrik T. Olsson
  Director: Erik Leijonborg, Daniel di Grado
  Cast: Isac Calmroth, Thea Sofie Loch Naess, Gustaf Skarsgård
  Commissioner: C More-TV4
  Global sales: Reinvent
  Logline: The series based on Jan Guillou's classic eponymous novel, centres on Erik (16), known for his violent behaviour, who is transferred to the boarding school Stjernsberg to distance himself from his dark past. But the place has institutionalised violence, disguising it as ‘peer education’ of the younger students. Erik soon falls for the kitchen girl Marja and starts a forbidden love affair with her. The series is due to premiere in 2023.

Documentary support

• Leaving Jesus
  Grant: NOK 600 000
  Recipient: Momento Film, Sweden
  Producers: Michael Krotkiewski, David Herdies
  Director: Ellen Fiske
  Logline: A group Christian ex-fundamentalists come together at the Journey Free retreat in San Fransisco. Lost and with traumatic experiences in their past they attempt to free themselves from their inner demons and the fundamental communities that they were born into. But how does one find meaning, identity and a moral compass in our frantic world, while at the same time having to question your closest friends and the truths you once took for granted?

Industry Initiatives Support:

• NOK100,000 to Iceland’s Stockfish Film Festival-Industry Days