'Dancing Queen'

Source: LevelK

‘Dancing Queen’

The team from the family film hit Dancing Queen will reunite for a sequel, Dancing Queen in Hollywood.

The film has received support from the Norwegian Film Institute’s latest production funding round, with backing of $491,000 (Euros 460,000) of the film’s total budget of $1.6m (Euros 1.5m).

The team plans to shoot in Los Angeles, Copenhagen (studio work) and Hamar, Norway in 2024, for a launch in 2025.

The first Dancing Queen ends with the young Mina and Markus dancers winning a trip to Hollywood, and in Dancing Queen in Hollywood, Mina and Markus are going to Los Angeles to dance in a music video by world famous pop star Anna of the North. But what starts out as a dream trip becomes very demanding for Mina who struggles with tough choreography and the stress of auditioning for a movie, while her parents experience a relationship crisis.

Aurora Gossé returns as director, reteaming with writer Silje Holtet. Producer Thomas Robsahm (The Worst Person In The World) leads the production for Armacord.

LevelK, which sold the first film to more than 30 territories, handles the sequel.

Liv Elvira Kippersund Larsson and Sturla Harbitz again star as Mina and Markus.

The first Dancing Queen had its world premiere in Berlinale Generation and has played at more than 50 festivals and won more than a dozen awards, including at Cinekid, Zurich, Lubeck, Seattle and one of Norway’s Amanda prizes. It was a box-office hit in Norway, attracting more than 70,000 admissions.

More NFI support

Two other major productions received funding in this round of production funding from the Norwegian Film Institute:

Hans Petter Moland’s Growth Of The Soil, which received $1.6m (€1.5m) in support, is adapted from the 1917 Nobel-prize-winning Knut Hamsun novel. Håkon Øverås produces for Fourandahalf, after previously collaborating with Moland on Out Stealing Horses. The story is about a young man who sets out to establish a farm in a deserted place, and the terrible secret that he and his wife later share.

The third feature backed in this round from NFI (with $1.38m/ €1.3m) is The Killing, which is also produced by Robsahm, for Nordisk. TrustNordisk handles sales and Nordisk’s Danish arm co-produces. Ingvild Søderlind (Royalteen Princess Margrethe) directs.

The film is a fictional feature inspired by the true story of the murder of Benjamin Hermansen in 2001, the first racially motivated murder in Norway, portrayed through the perspective of two young boys and a mother.