Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt

Source: Screen File

Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt

Joachim Trier’s next feature film will see him reunite with The Worst Person In The World’s co-writer Eskil Vogt, with Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar of Eye Eye Pictures set to produce.

The feature, as yet untitled, has received backing from the Norwegian Film Institute worth $1.9m (a record high for the public funder) as part of its total budget of $7.8m.

Trier’s sixth feature – all previous features have also been co-written with Vogt – is described as “an ambitious yet playful family drama set in Oslo. An intimate, moving and often funny film about family, memory and how we need to rewrite the stories we tell about ourselves in order to survive.”

The film will likely shoot in 2024. Vogt and Trier were Oscar nominated in 2022 for their Worst Person original screenplay; the film won best actress for Renate Reinsve at Cannes 2021.

Ottmar was one of the producers of Worst Person while at Oslo Pictures; Ekerhovd produced Vogt as a director with The Innocents (also a Cannes 2021 selection).

Mer Film also received NFI backing for Itonje Søimer Guttormsen’s Butterfly, a comedy drama about two sisters. This new feature from the Gritt director was presented at the 2023 Berlinale Co-Production Market. NFI chips in $1.3m of the film’s $4.1m budget. Butterfly will shoot in 2024 in Gran Canaria, Norway and Germany.

Mer Film’s past credits include The Innocents, War Sailor and What Will People Say.

Other projects backed in this round of funding from the NFI include the Christmas adventure story Stargate, written and directed by Ida Sagmo Tvedte, based on the novel by Ingvild Rishøi. Hege Hauf Hvattum and Yngve Sæther produce for Motlys (Beware Of Children, Ninjababy). The story follows a father who loses his job as a Christmas tree seller and spends his nights drinking at the Stargate pub, while his daughters, age 10 and 16, have to fend for themselves. The film receives $1.3m from the NFI toward its total budget and has a total budget of $2.6m.