Nordic Talents top prize to Cannes La Cinef winner Marlene Emilie Lyngstad for CUTE

After two days of intense pitching of 15 film, documentary, TV projects from 22 film graduates, Nordic Talents closed with the awards ceremony at the National Film School of Denmark, event partner of organiser Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The jury consisting of producer Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film, Norway, renowned writer/ filmmaker/producer Lone Scherfig, Matti Paunio, head of production, Finnish Film Foundation, Neil Peplow, London Film School CEO, and producer Anton Máni Svansson, of Iceland’s Join Motion Pictures, handed out the coveted Nordic Talents prizes to two projects from the National Film School of Denmark.

The feature film project Cute (formerly known as Great Acts of Humiliation) won the NOK250,000 Nordic Talents Pitch Prize, granted as development money from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The project was pitched by Norwegian director Marlene Emilie Lyngstad and Danish producer Carl Olsbæk Adelkilde, whose impressive joint graduation film Norwegian Offspring won this year’s Cannes La Cinef first prize and Haugesund’s Next Generation Award.

According to Adelkilde, Nordisk Film is attached to the project in early stages of development.

Cute is described as 'an exploration of the grotesqueness and the tenderness in the human desire for “the cute”. A mass produced stuffed animal becomes the physical link between different human destinies in a global tale about the longing for innocence in a world filled with guilt.

The jury who unanimously picked Cute as top winner said about the project: “This is a bold and innovative take on an important and timely topic, presented by a director with a distinct voice. She and her team have a genuinely cinematic approach, revealing the hidden realities of both being an object and being objectified in a consumer world where cuteness frequently conceals cruelty. This is a story we have not seen before and that we are looking forward to watch on the big screen.”

The realistic drama Medication written and directed by the Danish Las Dyhrcrone, received the NOK 50,000 Special Mention Prize. Dyhrcrone had impressed the 200 Nordic Talents attendees with their graduation film Out of Line (Fri), a raw and poetic portrait of Copenhagen graffiti artists.

The hybrid project Medication will be produced by Daniel Mühlendorph and Robin Hounisen for auteur-driven Hyæne Film (Sons of Denmark, Victor vs the World).

The story follows three young people in a godforsaken town, who navigate the fine line between pleasure and self-destructiveness, in the pursuit of identity and belonging.

The jury said: “We want to applaud a very ambitious and multifaceted project from a director with a great visual talent and strong will to explore identity in a true and authentic way. This [prize] is a contribution to go deeper into the characters and the experimental element of the story and to bring this relevant story to life.”

Wealth of new talents
As always, Nordic Talents was a perfect platform for producers, financiers, talent scouts to discover the next generation of talented Nordic writers, directors, producers, and get a feel of what makes them tick.

This year’s common threads were identity, vulnerability, the need to belong and find solace in a community-whatever shape or origin-LGBTQ, Sámi, Kurdish or French.

All jurors were impressed by the quality of the pitches - facilitated by trainers Valeria Richter and Paul Tyler - and cinematic breath of the stories often blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

“Pitches were genuinely good and diverse. I was quite surprised,” said Matti Paunio who underscored that it “was extremely difficult” to come up with a final choice for the Special Mention winner.

Maria Ekerhovd who felt ‘exhausted’ from the emotional charged projects and pitches, was particularly impressed by the boldness of the filmmakers, eager to tell relevant stories from a strong personal point of view. “A lot of filmmakers used reality as material to create fiction, which I think is a good way to approach fiction. It was very inspiring,” said the producer of the Nordic Council Film Prize nominated War Sailor.

First time Nordic Talents attendee Anton Máni Svansson, producer of Godland, was also struck by the diversity and hybrid creative approach of the young filmmakers. “The themes were very interesting, although I was struck by how dark many of them are, but that reflects the current state of the world,” he underlined.

“It’s not easy to be part of that generation,” added Lone Scherfig, director of the acclaimed Italian for Beginners and An Education, who praised the “strong visuals, strong voices” from outward-looking talents. “The youngsters aren’t narcissistic and they make full use of the world. It’s hopeful for our film schools, because we can see from those fine projects what they’ve learnt.”

London-based Neil Peplow added: “It’s been a fantastic couple of days. We’ve seen the power of storytelling in presenting and amplifying people’s identity and the power of shared community. It’s really important in these ages where the moving images are being used to create division and fear, to see so many inspirational filmmakers who can fight against that and create humanity and meaning.”

Nordic Talents other highlight this year was a Producers Pitch moderated by Noemi Ferrer, with the companies Tambo Film, Denmark, We Have a Plan and B-Reel Films from Sweden, Fire Monkey from Finland and Skala-Storm Films from Norway.

Media expert Keld Reinicke also took centre stage to discuss ‘How to Face the Paradigm Shift in the Nordic Film & TV Industry’.

Nordic Talents was organised by Tina i Dali Wagner, Project Manager Nordic Talents, on behalf of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

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