The three films shortlisted for the country’s Foreign Language film entry were selected by the Norwegian Oscar committee among 28 possible candidates.

Hunting Flies and The Tree Feller are the directorial debuts of Izer Aliu and Jorunn Myklebust Syversen respectively, while Thelma is Joachim Trier’s fourth feature film.

Hunting Flies which focuses on an idealist teacher in rural Macedonia who tries to solve the ethnic rivalries among his class students, just picked up a nomination for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2017, and a Best Director accolade at the Amanda film awards. The film produced by Khalid Maimouni for The End had its domestic release in April 2017. LevelK handles world sales.

Thelma is Trier’s second Norwegian entry at the Academy awards, after his feature debut Reprise (2006). Written by Trier together with his usual collaborator Eskil Vogt, Thelma tells of a young woman with supernatural powers who falls for a beautiful classmate. The suspense drama had its world premiere at Haugesund’ Norwegian Film Festival where it won the Norwegian Film Critics Prize. It will next screen at the Toronto and New York film festivals and will open domestically on September 15. The film was produced by Motlys´ Thomas Robsahm, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The Orchard has picked up North American rights from Memento Film Sales.

The Tree Feller tells of a city slicker (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) who moves to the countryside with the hope to find a quieter and simpler life style, closer to nature. The film produced by Mer Film’s Maria Ekerhovd had its Norwegian premiere last April.

The final Norwegian submission for the upcoming Academy Awards-foreign language film category will be announced on September 6, 2017.