Jesper Morthorst worked five years for Nimbus Film before joining Danish auteur director Christoffer Boe's own outfit Alphaville Pictures Copenhagen. Producer of Birgitte Stærmose's EFA-nominated short film Out Of Love, Morthorst is currently working on Stærmose's first feature length Room 304 as well as a primetime drama series, Rita, to be aired on TV2 Denmark later this year.
Producer/director Joonas Berghäll founded the production outfit Oktober Oy in 2004 with fellow directors Katja Gauriloff and Mika Hotakainen. His film Steam of Life co-directed with Hotakainen was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2010 and travelled to over 50 international festivals. Among Berghäll's recent productions is the documentary Canned Dreams by Gauriloff, a lyrical portrayal of European workers through the journey of canned ravioli. The film was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Hlin Jóhannesdóttir (photo) joined Zik Zak Filmworks in 2000. She has worked on 20 film projects for the company including Dagur Kári's Noi Albinoi, The Good Heart, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Niceland and Rúnar Rúnarsson's Oscars nominated short film The Last Farm and Cannes Directors' Fortnight 2011 entry Volcano. (See Q&A here under).
Maria Ekerhovd won a Palme d'or in Cannes 2006 with Bobbie Peers' short film Sniffer. The film is among ten shorts to her credit, plus the feature films The Storm in My Heart by Pål Jackman and Vegas by Gunnar Vikene. She just set up her own company Mer Film that has a first-look deal with Svensk Filmindustri. Among her projects to be discussed in Cannes is the next Ole Giæver, director of the Berlinale Panorama selection The Mountain.
Mimmi Spång and Rebecka Lafrenz set up Garagefilm International in 2003, after a few years spent at Memfis Film. They produced Babak Najafi's multi-award winning feature debut Sebbe, screening at Cannes Junior this year. Their upcoming projects include the political thriller Call Girl, first feature length film by the talented television director Mikael Marcimain (Laser Man, How Soon is Now?)
Three questions to Hlin Jóhannesdóttir
How does it feel to be both a Producer on the Move and selected at Cannes Directors' Fortnight with Volcano?
It will be my first time ever in Cannes. Everything happens at once. It's so exciting! I look forward to pushing my career forward with my own projects. It's a great opportunity to take part in Producers on the Move and a fantastic bonus to have Volcano at the Directors Fortnight.
How was it to work with Rúnar Rúnarsson and how would you describe Volcano?
I've known Rúnar several years, having worked with him on his 2004 Oscar-nominated short film The Last Farm. He is extremely talented and focused. He has a strong empathy for the characters he creates and a personal way of telling the stories in a slow and engaging way. Volcano has many elements of his short films. The storyline is rather narrow, focusing on people's lives. It is very personal, taken from childhood memories, and the lead character - the 67 year-old man - was inspired by Rúnar's own father. It's a sort of ‘coming of age story in a later stage of life where the lead character realises that his life didn't turn out the way he had hoped for. His family has suffered because of him and he wants to make changes.
What projects are you working on?
I'm associate producer on Zik Zak's Black Curse that just started filming. Set in Iceland's underworld, the project is the directorial debut of Oskar Thor Axelsson, a graduate from New York University. Then another first time director, Katrín Ólafsdóttir is developing Home Away From Home. It's the story of a woman from Reykjavik who dates a foreigner on the internet. She travels to meet him, but their first ‘live' encounter is a disaster. The project to be shot partly in Iceland and in the Canary Islands is produced by Zik Zak with Spellbound Production in Iceland. German and Spanish co-producers will be involved in the project.