The three rising Nordic talents will take part in the European Film Promotion’s platform for the next generation of European filmmakers, to be held during the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Denmark’s writer/director Nicolai G.H. Johansen, Finland’s actor/writer/director Max Ovaska and Sweden’s writer/director Angelika Abramovitch are among the ten European promising directors invited to attend the Future Frames’ two-part event.

Between June 27-28, the selected talents will attend an on-line pre-programme with pitching training and industry meetings, followed by the in-person main event July 4-6 during which the talents will present their graduation films to the Czech audience.
This year’s Nordic trio has already collected kudos either for their graduation films or other short films.

A graduate from the Stockholm Academy of the Arts, Angelika Abramovitch has won the Nordic Talents Special Mention last year for the pitching of her debut feature A Soviet Love Story, and her graduation film Catcave Hysteria screened at the 2022 Clermont-Ferrand international competition. She also picked up the Swedish Film Institute’s Wild Card award 2021, to fast-track the making of A Soviet Love Story.

Speaking earlier to us about her vision (CLICK HERE), Abramovitch said she is attracted to female-driven stories and aesthetically by the movies from the 70s and 80s.

While Catcave Hysterica is a playful exploration of female relationships, set entirely in women’s restrooms, A Soviet Love Story will be a period piece, set in the Crimean Riviera and inspired by her own parents’ love story.

The feature will be a boy-meet-girl story, sex and rock music, set in the Soviet coastal town of Gurzuf, Crimea, between 1968 -1989. We meet Anja & Anton in their dizzying love story, but when their son falls ill with leukaemia after the Chernobyl tragedy, they are torn apart and their relationship is put to test.

Russian war in Ukraine and its impact in the region has affected Abramovitch’s working process on A Soviet Love Story, but she keeps very hopeful. “I have tons of patience for this film because to me, it’s very important. Of course, the working process will be affected, it’s not an easy thing to write and be creative during this cruel time, and I think that goes for any project. Right now, I’m still researching and writing and I hope that one day, we will be able to film it in my hometown of Gurzuf, Crimea. I also hope that people will be able see this film for what it is - a love story about my parents that happens to be set in the Soviet-Union 1968-1989. And maybe someday in the future, it can be a film that even for a little bit heals wounds of many people,” she said adding: “My thoughts and all of my broken heart are with Ukraine.”

Nicolai G.H. Johansen for his part, has graduated from the Danish indie school Super 8 with the film If You Knew, which just won the audience award at the French Brive Film Festival in April.

Johansen had his breakthrough already last year with his short film Inherent, selected for the Critics’ Week in Cannes.

Fully-focused on the art of filmmaking for the silver screen, the writer/director is drawn to character-driven narratives, usually centred on lonely and vulnerable people, struggling to connect with others. While Inherent was a gothic horror teen romance, If You Knew is a psychological drama about Leonora (Mathilde Fock) who has been attending therapy sessions, after having stalked her ex-boyfriends Niklas (Magnus Juhl Andersen) and is making progress. She reaches out to him to ask for forgiveness. “It’s more a film about mental illness than a suspense story with one person chasing the other,” told Johansen to nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

The director’s feature length debut - still untitled - will also feature a mentally vulnerable character, but it will be more genre oriented,” says Johansen who will collaborate with Danish writer Mads Lind Knudsen (Robert nominated with Amourteur), a graduate from the Norwegian Film School in Lillehammer. Snowglobe who produced Inherent will produce his feature debut.

Max Ovaska is a film director graduate from the Aalto University’s Department of Film, Television and Scenography but has been working since 2002 as an actor on major TV series (Bordertown, Deadwind) and films (Heavy Trip).

His graduation film Carrier (Lasti), was one of seven finalists at the 2021 Student Academy Awards-Narrative International Film Schools category.

Written by Josefina Rautiainen, it’s the story of Janika (Saara Kotkaniemi) who takes advantage of her pregnancy to smuggle amphetamines from Tallinn to Helsinki with her brother. Being pregnant, she gets to skip through customs control. Hooked on the job, Janika decides to smuggle one more time despite having contractions.

Discussing his style and vision, Ovaska said: “For me, the most important elements in films are writing and acting. I aim to create content that is true and stimulating, especially in those areas. I love simple and intense stories with complex characters.”

Ovaska has two projects in development, co-written with Rautiainen.

  • his feature length debut Method is a comedy about an actor who gets too carried away by his first small part in a movie. He decides to move into the suburb to properly immerse in the life of a thug, and ends up causing a real mess. The project will be produced by Tekele Productions.
  • a TV series produced by Yellow Film & TV, which is due to start filming next fall.

Ovaska is also playing the lead in a Finnish remake of the Norwegian hit series Exit, currently shooting for Fremantle Finland.