Handling The Undead

Source: Courtesy of TrustNordisk

‘Handling The Undead’

Haugesund’s New Nordic Films industry event will have a two-year special focus on Nordic co-productions with the UK in 2023 and 2024.

Activities in 2023 include a session with Denitsa Yordanova, head of the UK Global Screen Fund, and a case study of Iceland-shot The Damned, Thordur Palsson’s upcoming psychological horror, with producer Kamilla Kristiane Hodøl of the UK’s Elation Pictures.

At Haugesund’s Nordic Co-Production and Finance Market, four UK projects will be presented: Gunnar’s Daughter, produced by Angeli Marie Macfarlane at Script Cube; Haven directed by Adam Berg and produced by Christopher Granier-Deferre from Poisson Rouge Pictures; The DJ to be directed by Jørn Utkilen, produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd from Hopscotch Films; and Who Goes There directed by Astrid Thorvaldsen, produced by Helen Gladders from Gingerbread Pictures and Oskar Pimlott from Pulse Films.

The UK Focus is presented in collaboration with and supported by the British Film Institute, the Norwegian Embassy in London, the British Embassy in Norway and the British Council.

Twenty other projects in development will be presented in the Market. They include Jonas Kærup Hjort’s Bestiere, about a woman who gets a transplant of a pig’s heart to save her life; Sami Blood director Amanda Kernell’s next film The Curse – A Love Story; Jens Lien’s “grounded sci-fi” Joe’s Assignment; Hanne Berkaak’s animated romance-horror Pesta; and Farzad Samsami’s Morocco-set drama Zarzis.

The works-in-progress presentations will feature 12 films, including Thea Hvistendahl’s debut feature Handling The Undead – a horror-drama that reunites The Worst Person In The World’s Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie; Richard Holm’s Swedish disaster film The Abyss; and Dag Johan Haugerud’s ambitious trilogy Sex Dreams Love.

New Nordic Films opens with Aki Kaurismaki’s Cannes hit Fallen Leaves on August 22, with lead actor Jussi Vatanen in attendance. Sixteen other features will have closed market screenings – those include Toronto-bound titles Solitude and A Happy Day and Karlovy Vary award winner The Hypnosis.

Other topics of industry talks will include Europa Distribution’s discussion of distributing Nordic films in the rest of Europe; and CAA’s chief data officer Andre Vargas looking at how Nordic content travels in the US and globally.