All articles by Osman Kibar
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Local box office hits starve Norway of film funds
The local success of two children's films has caused unforeseen problems for the Norwegian Film Fund, which administers the annual $28m in state subsidy for film in Norway.Olsenbanden jr has so far recorded 350,000 admissions, while Summer Of Wolves has been seen by 210,000 Norwegians. In addition, the local low-budget ...
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Norway puts cinema sell off plans on hold
Plans by Norway's three largest cities - Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim - to sell large stakes in their municipally-owned local exhibitors have stalled. Oslo City Council has not managed to secure the price it wanted from any private cinema operator for a 66% of its stake in the municipally-owned ...
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Zwart quits MGM's Cody Banks sequel
Norwegian director Harald Zwart says he has left MGM's sequel to Agent Cody Banks, according to local paper Dagbladet.MGM had planned to begin production on Agent Cody Banks 2 in London in June, with teen heartthrob Frankie Muniz repeating his teen 007 role in the second instalment of the spy ...
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Norway greenlights Olsen Gang Jr sequel
With the first film still on theatrical release, The Norwegian Film Fund has already greenlighted the Nordisk sequel to family film The Olsen Gang Jr, which has attracted over 300,000 admissions since it opened on February 7th. The season's most successful local film is the children's version of Norway's best ...
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Norway funds two new features from Maipo
The Norwegian Film Fund has greenlighted two new projects from Maipo Film, the outfit behind the local box office phenomenon Elling.Bent, Frank & Susie is based on The Jealous Hairdresser a short story by Norway's number one best-selling author Lars Saabye Christensen. Annette Sjursen's directing debut tells the story of ...
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Columbia TriStar ends nine-year old Nordisk deal
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has ended its nine-year pact with Scandinavian media giant Egmont's subsidiary Nordisk Film.Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has made a new deal to distribute home entertainment in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden with Universal Pictures Japan which also includes a number of other territories, including the Nordic ...
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Market leader prepares to sell Norwegian cinema circuit
Oslo City Council has started negotiations with both foreign and local bidders interested in acquiring 66% of its stake in the municipally-owned Oslo Cinemas. After 77 years as a public service, the sale of Norway's largest exhibitor Oslo Cinemas, which controls 25% of the country's cinema market, is being closely ...
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Zentropa to cut staff by 25%
Danish production company Zentropa is to cut a quarter of its staff; while local authorities investigate a number of its subsidiary companies.Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Lars von Trier's Zentropa is set to lose 20 out of a total of 80 of its staff in the weeks to come.At the same ...
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Norwegian animated feature gets blockbuster treatment
Distributor Svensk Filmindustri is giving Vibeke Idsoe's $7.7m feature animation Karlsson On The Roof a blockbuster opening this weekend. It will be released on 173 screens across Norway and Sweden.It marks the biggest ever simultaneous opening in the two countries for a local production. Even most studio titles are released ...
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Norwegian film fund banks on Elling prequel
The Norwegian Film Fund is to back Maipo Film's follow-up to last year's local box office phenomenon Elling. The new film, Mother's Elling is a prequel, dealing with the title character's adventures at a Spanish holiday resort with his elderly mother. As with the first film, the script is by ...
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Norway to allow cinema privatisation for the first time since 1913
Norway's largest exhibitor, the municipally-owned Oslo Cinemas, will be privatised before the end of this year, with the Oslo City Council which owns the company, planning to sell between 66 % and 100 % of its shares.Oslo Cinemas operates with 11 cinemas and 31 screens and attracted 3 million admissions ...
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Norway goes crazy for documentaries
Following the runaway success of Knut Erik Jensen's 2001 musical documentary Cool And Crazy, a slate of new Norwegian documentaries are enjoying both critical and commercial success at home.The Norwegian Film Fund has just awarded $371,000 to local production outfit Barentsfilm for director Knut Erik Jensen's (pictured) new theatrical documentary ...
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Chaos strikes twice at Haugesund
French director Coline Serreau's (pictured) melodrama Chaos starring Vincent Lindon and Catherine Frot received both the main award and the audience award the 30th edition of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund which closed on Sunday. Sigve Endresen's personal documentary Weightless about folk singer Kari Iveland's struggle with anorexia ...
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Finnish cinema operator to build 14-screen site in Latvia
The Finnish multiplex operator Finnkino OY and local department store group Stockmann will invest $39m in a cinema and retail complex in the Latvian capital of Riga. Stockmann is providing $23m, while Finnkino will contribute $16.2m to the project.The six-storey building to be completed in the autumn of 2003, will ...
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Norwegian Film Fund banks on The Beautiful Country
The Norwegian Film Fund, which is shortly to celebrate its first birthday, is spreading its money widely in its latest funding round, backing two international projects as well as four local productions.The $6.3m English language drama The Beautiful Country, starring Nick Nolte and Harvey Keitel and directed by Hans Petter ...
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Norwegian hit Elling to get prequel and sequel
Following its latest triumph at Spain's Peniscola international comedy film festival, Norway's Maipo Film is preparing two further films based on the Elling franchise, now that the comedy has become one of the most successful Norwegian films ever.Theatre director Peter Naess' second big screen effort Elling became the biggest local ...
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Ullmann withdraws as director from $9.5m Nordisk biopic
Actress-turned-director Liv Ullmann has withdrawn from the $9.5m historical biopic on Ole Bull, a Norwegian violinist and composer who died in 1880, which is currently in pre-production at Nordisk Film. The high-profile production based on a script by local author Ketil Bjornstad and backed by Norway's most famous violinist Arve ...
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Norway's Film Fund supports first-time directors
The Norwegian Film Fund has greenlit seven new films, all of which are set to roll this year, with newcomers and children's films grabbing most of the $4.1m support from the fund.Production outfit Yellow Cottage has received funding for two high-profile children films based on well-known local franchises. Originally a ...
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Scandinavia's costliest film proves its worth
The most expensive film ever produced in Scandinavia had its world premiere in Norway on national release last week, after having been critically slated by the press.I Am Dina, the $15.9m English-language film by Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch - both Danish and US versions), starring Gerard Depardieu and Christopher Eccleston, was ...
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Cool And Crazy tops Amanda awards at Haugesund
Knut Erik Jensen's documentary Cool and Crazy about a male choir from a remote arctic town took home two Amanda Awards, for best Norwegian film and best documentary at this year's Haugesund Film Festival. With more than half a million admissions, Cool and Crazy has become the second best attended ...