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Shudder, AMC Networks’ premier streaming service for horror, thrillers, and supernatural content, has acquired North American, UK, and Anz rights to The Ugly Stepsister, an innovative and twisted reimagining of the Cinderella story. The highly anticipated feature debut from Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt is set to open the Midnight Section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival before its release on Shudder later in the year.

Starring Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, and Ane Dahl Torp, The Ugly Stepsister delves into a dark, chilling narrative of ambition and sacrifice. In a kingdom where beauty reigns supreme, Elvira is determined to win the prince’s heart, facing off against the radiant Agnes in a haunting and cutthroat competition to become the belle of the ball.

“I am beyond thrilled to bring The Ugly Stepsister to Sundance and to share it with a wider audience alongside my incredible team and in partnership with Shudder,...

The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its 2025 lineup, which includes fairy tale body horror movie The Ugly Stepsister. Shudder has announced today that they’ve acquired the North American, UK, and Anz rights to the horror twist on Cinderella.

The Ugly Stepsister will debut on Shudder in 2025.

The film follows “Elvira as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes to become the belle of the ball.”

It marks the feature debut from Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt, and stars Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, and Ane Dahl Torp.

Said Director Emilie Blichfeldt, “I am beyond thrilled to bring The Ugly Stepsister to Sundance and ultimately to a wider audience alongside my incredible team and in partnership with Shudder. This beauty horror twist on Cinderella is inspired...

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service has bought “The Ugly Stepsister,” a sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, ahead of the film’s world premiere at Sundance.

The movie, which is slated to open the Midnight Section in Park City, was picked up by Shudder for North American, U.K., and Anz rights. Memento International represents the film.

“The Ugly Stepsister” marks the feature debut from Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt. It stars newcomer Lea Myren, along with Thea Sofie Loch Næss (“The Last Kingdom”) and Ane Dahl Torp (“The Wave”). Shudder will release the film in 2025.

“The Ugly Stepsister” follows Elvira as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes to become the belle of the ball.

“I am beyond thrilled to bring ‘The Ugly Stepsister...

The Playmaker has closed several additional distribution deals for comedy “Two to One,” which stars Academy Award-nominated Sandra Hüller, whose credits include “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Toni Erdmann.”

The film has been a hit at the German box office with 278,416 admissions and a gross of €2,705,117 for the period July 25 to Aug. 11. The German distributor is X-Verleih.

The Playmaker has sold the film to buyers in Scandinavia (Nonstop Entertainment), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Hungary (Cirko Film), Baltics (Estin Film) and Latin America (Synapse Distribution).

Previously announced deals have secured the film’s release in France (Kmbo), Spain (A Contracorriente), Australia (Madman) and Greece (Rosebud).

“Two to One” is one of 13 films in the running to be Germany’s entry for the best international feature film category of the Oscars.

In “Two to One,” a group of clever East Germans take advantage of the chaotic situation in East Germany in 1990 to retrieve...

Exclusive: Peter Stormare (Fargo) is among 28 new additions to the cast of Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole, Netflix’s forthcoming crime series based on the novels from Norwegian author Jo Nesbø.

Others featuring in prominent secondary roles include Anders Baasmo (Power Play), Ellen Helinder (Exit), Simon J. Berger (Exit), Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Westworld) and Kelly Gale (Plane). Director Anna Zackrisson (Deliver Me) has also joined the production, which as previously reported, will star Tobias Santelmann, Joel Kinnaman and Pia Tjelta.

Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole is a whodunnit serial killer mystery led by famed anti-hero detective Harry Hole (Santelmann). Underneath the surface, this series is a nuanced character drama about two police officers — and supposed colleagues — operating on opposite sides of the law. Throughout the first season, Harry goes head-to-head with his long-time adversary and corrupt detective, Tom Waaler (Kinnaman). Harry is a brilliant but tormented homicide detective who struggles with his demons.

The awards took place at the closing night of Film Fest Gent.

Volker Bertelmann has won the film composer of the year at the 23rd World Soundtrack Awards (Wsa), which took place tonight (October 21), at the closing night of Film Fest Gent.

Bertelmann was nominated for his scores for War Sailor, All Quiet On The Western Front and Memory Of Water. Other nominees in this category included Carter Burwell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Catherine Called Birdy and To Catch A Killer and Hildur Guðnadóttir for Women Talking and Tár.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Nicholas Britell took...

Netflix has ordered a sequel to “Troll,” the Norwegian action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug, who helmed Norway’s first disaster movie, “The Wave.”

“Troll 2” reteams Uthaug (“Tomb Raider”) with writer Espen Aukan and producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud at Motion Blur, the Oslo-based banner whose credits include “Cadaver,” “Amundsen” and “The 12th Man.”

The first installment unfolds in the aftermath of an explosion in the Norwegian mountains, which awakens an ancient troll. The story revolves around a fearless paleontologist who embarks on a journey to stop the troll from wreaking deadly havoc. The cast included Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Pettersen and Gard B. Eidsvold.

“Troll” premiered globally on Netflix in 2022 and quickly became the streamer’s most popular non-English film of all time, with a record-breaking 103,000,000 views in its first 91 days, according to Netflix. The epic movie also ranked in the Top 10 in 93 countries...

Nominees in the categories of discovery of the year, public choice award and the new game music award have been revealed.

Film Fest Gent and The World Soundtrack Academy has unveiled the second and final wave of nominations for the 2023 World Soundtrack Awards, which will take place on October 21 at the Film Fest Gent in Belgium, with Golda, Avatar: The Way Of Water and The Menu among the additional titles represented.

Nominations for discovery of the year, public choice award, Wsa game music award, best original score for a Belgian production and the Sabam Award for best original composition by...

The World War Two drama War Sailor — which debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival — swept Norway’s Amanda Awards last night, taking four main awards.

The War Sailor haul included best actor for Pål Sverre Hagen. This is his third Amanda and second consecutive win. Ine Marie Wilmann won the best supporting actress award for portraying Cecilia in the pic.

The film, directed by Norwegian filmmaker Gunnar Vikene, centers on Alfred Garnes, a working-class sailor who has recently become the father of a third child. He and his childhood friend Sigbjørn Kvalen are working on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. They are unarmed civilians on the front lines of a war they never asked to join. The two men struggle for survival in a spiral of violence and death, where German submarines may attack their valuable vessels at any moment.

Nicholas Winding Refn’s ‘Famous Five’ Adaptation Sets Cast

The BBC’s upcoming Famous Five adaptation from Nicholas Winding Refn has set cast and unveiled first look images. Diaana Babnicova will play the role of George, alongside Elliott Rose as Julian, Kit Rakusen as Dick, Flora Jacoby Richardson as Anne playing George’s cousins who come to stay at Kirrin Cottage. Joining the five are Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones) as Wentworth, Ann Akinjirin (Moon Knight) as Fanny, James Lance (Ted Lasso) as Quentin and Diana Quick (Father Brown) as Mrs Wentworth. The series is being co-produced for Zdf and comes from Drive creator Winding Refn’s byNWR along with Moonage Pictures. The show will be based on Enid Blyton’s iconic 21 stories with filming set to take place shortly across the south west of the UK. Famous Five is one of the highest-profile series to come out of the...

Exclusive: The Golden Trailer Awards has unveiled its nominees for its 23rd annual extravaganza taking place on Thursday, June 29th at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. The awards show honors the creative teams that are tasked with condensing two-hour films into two-minute trailers.

Films that received the most mentions include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Nope and Oppenheimer. The TV series that were the most nominated included Ted Lasso, Stranger Things and Only Murders in the Building.

Studios leading the count this year include Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Warner Bros./Discovery, Amazon, Paramount (Paramount+), and Apple TV+ The top nominated agencies include Av Squad, Zealot, Tiny Hero, Trailer Park Group and Ignition Creative.

This awards show highlights the phenomenal trailers from the current year.

Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar of Eye Eye Pictures will produce the as-yet-untitled family drama set in Oslo.

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...

Netflix always seems to know when it has a potential hit. Although the action-comedy sequel “Murder Mystery 2,” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, was probably a no-brainer, the continuing success of the spy thriller series “The Night Agent” certainly must be a nice surprise. Read on for the Netflix Top 10 (Week of April 3) viewing chart analysis.

Last week, Season 1 of “The Night Agent” spent its third weekend as the #1 English language series on the streamer with 130.5 million global hours viewed, which was enough to put it into Netflix’s all-time most popular English shows in ninth place with 515.6 million total hours viewed worldwide. The show is in the top 10 in 92 countries, many of which it remains in the #1 spot. Wisely, Netflix has already greenlit a second season.

Season 4 of “Love is Blind” follows in second place with 43.1 million viewing hours. The season finale of the popular reality TV series will drop this coming Friday,...

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always movie, John Mulaney’s new stand-up special, the second season of Sweet Tooth and the final seasons of Better Call Saul, Working Moms and Firefly Lane are among the much-anticipated projects hitting Netflix this month.

The Power Rangers movie, streaming April 19, brings back series castmembers David Yost, Walter Jones, Steve Cardenas, Catherine Sutherland, Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch as they face off against the evil Rita Repulsa (Barbara Goodson) once more.

John Mulaney returns to Netflix for his latest stand-up special, Baby J, on April 25. Baby J, shot at Boston’s Symphony Hall, marks Mulaney’s third stand-up special at Netflix, which also streamed his variety special John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch in 2019. The special is also Mulaney’s first since his recent divorce, stint in rehab and welcoming a baby with Olivia Munn.

At the end of the month, Netflix...

War Sailor (Krigsseileren) is a series set in World War II, a Norwegian production that returns to the war theme, as was done with Narvik. A great series written and directed by Gunnar Vikene starring Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen and Ine Marie Wilmann.

The tale of a few men who, onboard ship, suddenly find themselves facing the outbreak of World War II, on the high seas and without weapons.

If you like epic stories, ones which have strength and style and, above all, human stories of overcoming obstacles, War Sailor plunges us into this three-hour story divided into three episodes that completely immerse us in a tale which is, above all, well narrated.

As already happened in Narvik, it is a film very close to the human side rather than to the events themselves, a series that tries to get closer to the human suffering than to any political or sociological key aspects.

After World War II broke out, Nazi Germany occupied Norway in 1940. During this period, Norway’s British allies needed strong armament to defend their country against the Nazi onslaught. However, these weapons were being delivered to England by Norwegian ships, but when traveling over the Atlantic, Nazi Germany frequently sank them in order to halt their distribution. Several seafarers who had never joined the army yet worked as front liners in this battle died in this horrific occurrence.

The Norwegian military drama “War Sailor” portrays the life of one of those sailors whose entire life was impacted by being on the sea and continuing to ship for the British in wartime. Alfred Garnes was one of those unfortunate working-class sailors who embraced the opportunity to serve the Allies with the goal of receiving a substantial salary to support his family, but from 1940 to 1945 – all these years he spent in ships were for naught,...

Netflix is set to reteam with Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, the creators of the popular crime comedy series “Lilyhammer,” on a new Norwegian program, with the working title “Salmon Island.”

The series is set up at leading Norwegian production banner Rubicon and will be helmed by Marit Moum Aune (“Made in Oslo”), who also serves as a conceptual director on the series.

“Salmon Island” takes place in a small coastal community in Norway and revolves around two families who are sworn enemies in the global salmon industry. The contemporary series delivers a portrait of the fish farming business, weaving together comedy and drama.

“Over the last few decades, fish farming has changed both the Norwegian coast and international food culture,” said Bjørnstad and Skodvin, who also penned the series.

“The time feels right for a television drama about the operators in the industry. It’s amazing that a global...

“War Sailor,” a Norwegian war drama, depicts the life of Alfred Garnes, a working-class sailor who secured a position sailing with the merchant navy solely for the Allied side under the British during the onset of World War Two. We had witnessed the anguish he had endured throughout his years at sea. The people he met and the deaths he observed had a significant impact on his life. Some circumstances even brought out the worst in him, which tormented him for a long time. However, through it all, we see him with a lifelong friend, Sigbjorn, by his side. Sigbjorn had gone through the same situation as Alfred, and the circumstances had affected him as well, but with no family to care about, he was much more carefree than Alfred was. But he was committed to a promise that he had made to Cecilia. Before leaving with the merchant navy,...

Previously, in “War Sailor,” episode 2, we saw a great deal of deaths, including Hanna and Aksel’s, from the torpedo explosion on the ship they were on board. Even though the blast claimed Hanna’s life, Aksel survived and lost a leg, but he couldn’t bear the pain. Alfred gave him a lethal dose of morphine to set him free of his suffering. Alfred also killed the new sailor, who became aggressive after watching Aksel die. On an isolated raft in the middle of the ocean, only Sigbjorn and Alfred remained alive.

Meanwhile, a huge explosion in Bergen destroyed the house where Cecilia and her children were residing. However, Sigbjorn and Alfred were rescued by a ship and sent to a hospital in Canada. There, a few days later, Alfred received a telegram informing him of the awful death of his family. Alfred left the hospital early the next...

Previously, in “War Sailor” episode 1, we saw how Alfred Garnes and his comrade Sigbjorn were driven to board Norwegian merchant ships in order to aid the British allies. It was difficult for Alfred to leave his family in Bergen, but he promised to return safely. However, several years passed, and he was unable to return home. Cecilia kept taking care of her kids while hoping for his return. As several of the Norwegian ships had been torpedoed by the Germans, Alfred and Sigbjorn witnessed numerous deaths take place right in front of their eyes. Alfred and his crew had moved ships many times over the years, but when in New York, his two crewmates, one a 16-year-old child and the other a lady, were ordered to pack their belongings and return home. In the interim, the Brits began bombing a number of locations in Norway, which made Alfred wonder if...

The brutality of war tormented the common people of Norway with the outbreak of World War II. But a major victory against Hitler was achieved when many Norwegian merchant seamen were conscripted to help the British Allies during WWII. The Norwegian drama “War Sailor,” which is now available on Netflix, depicts how the war destroyed the lives of those merchant seamen and their families.

The story of “War Sailor” revolves around a sailor, Alfred Garnes (Kristoffer Joner), and his comrade Sigbjorn (Pål Sverre Hagen) as they travel aboard a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. While Alfred and Sigbjorn struggled as unarmed citizens who had never joined the army, Alfred’s wife and three children were anxiously awaiting their return. The plight of Alfred’s family and the merchant seamen who were torpedoed at sea by the Germans became the show’s highlight. Meanwhile, when the Brits attempted...

April will see a host of new movies and TV show arrive on Netflix.

Alongside film versions of TV shows The Last Kingdom and Power Rangers will be the second season of cult hit Sweet Tooth, and Beef, an intriguing new series from Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.

There is also a music documentary about Lewis Capaldi as well as Brett Morgen’s David Bowie film Moonage Daydream, and a stand-up special from American comedian John Mulaney – not to mention the arrival of a long-awaited season of TV that will make subscripers very happy.

There is a wide selection of titles being added in the UK that aren’t going to be on US Netflix, so below, we’ve signalled where you can find everything.

Find a full list of every movie being removed from Netflix here.

Nb: We put this list together with help from What’s on Netflix.

April will see a host of new movies and TV show arrive on Netflix.

Alongside film versions of TV shows The Last Kingdom and Power Rangers will be the second season of cult hit Sweet Tooth, and Beef, an intriguing new series from Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.

There is also a music documentary about Lewis Capaldi as well as Brett Morgen’s David Bowie film Moonage Daydream, and a stand-up special from American comedian John Mulaney – not to mention the arrival of a long-awaited season of TV that will make subscripers very happy.

There is a wide selection of titles being added in the UK that aren’t going to be on US Netflix, so below, we’ve signalled where you can find everything.

Find a full list of every movie being removed from Netflix here.

Nb: We put this list together with help from What’s on Netflix.

With its list of new releases for April 2023, Netflix is is hosting a 30th anniversary special for a very important pop culture franchise.

April 19 sees the arrival of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, a special that will celebrate 30 years of Power Rangers. This won’t just be your standard reunion show, however, but a full blown story in itself. Netflix’s description reads: “When Rita Repulsa returns, the Power Rangers are the only ones who can stop her! But after 30 years, can the team still be the heroes the world needs?” Ai yi yi, indeed!

Other TV options this month on Netflix include the Steven Yeun-starring road rage series, Beef, on April 6 and the Keri Russell-starring The Diplomat on April 20. Season 2 of family friendly post-apocalypse drama Sweet Tooth arrives on April 27 (which is also a very special Den of Geek writers’ birthday...

One of the most eagerly anticipated series of the spring is coming to Netflix on April 6. Ali Wong and Steven Yeun star in “Beef” as strangers involved in a road-rage incident. But rather than let insurance sort it out, the two drivers morph into lunatics bent on revenge, resulting in increasingly harrowing — and hilarious — circumstances.

Watch the trailer for “Beef”:

More than just a meme, on April 13, Netflix unveils limited series “Florida Man,” which follows a struggling ex-cop (played by Edgar Ramírez) forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend. What should be a quick gig becomes a wildly spiraling journey into buried family secrets and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing in a place where so much is wrong.

Check out the trailer for “Florida Man”:

Also coming to Netflix in April will be the final chapter of “Firefly Lane.

There’s very little time left in March 2023, which means April is upon us. If you subscribe to Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Showtime, Prime Video, or Hulu, listen up. Discover what’s coming to your favorite streaming platforms in the way of new shows and returning series in April.

New shows coming to Netflix, Hulu, and more in April 2023 | Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images Netflix: ‘Firefly Lane’ concludes with season 2 part 2 on April 27

The long-awaited final Installment of Firefly Lane comes out in April 2023, but not until the end of the month. That gives fans plenty of time to read the books on which the Netflix series is based and give season 1 and the first half of two a rewatch. Moved up from the original June release date, Firefly Lane Season 2 Part 2 drops on Netflix on April 27.

Netflix releases, new additions, and returning series in April 2023

Aside from Firefly Lane,...

So many great stories in history start out with the key players hating each other — as it is in Netflix and A24’s “Beef,” streaming on Netflix in April. Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) meet via parking lot bump turned action-movie car chase, their lives connecting and their road rage lingering in weeks and months after the incident. In reviewing the series, IndieWire’s Ben Travers said that “’Beef’ does a fine job balancing Amy and Danny’s practical intelligence and impractical passions; their bitterness toward the other driver ebbs and flows as their personal lives better or worsen, and it’s in these moments that the half-hour drama thrives.”

The series from Lee Sung Jin premieres on April 6. See below for more titles coming to Netflix in April 2023.

April 1

“28 Days”

“A League of Their Own”

“American Hustle”

“Battleship”

“The Birds”

“Born on the Fourth of July...

“Elvis” director of photography Mandy Walker won Feature Film at the ASC Awards March 5, when the American Society of Cinematographers handed out its honors at the 37th annual awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Walker’s win in the feature film category could prove prescient; 17 out of the last 36 years found the ASC film winner winning the Academy Award. But it’s worth noting that Oscar nominees “Tár” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” were not among the ASC nominees.

In the TV categories, “The Old Man” took awards for Motion Picture, Limited Series, or Pilot Made for Television and Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial, while “Barry” won Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series for its Season 3 finale and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Non-Commercial for its Season 4 finale.

In addition, several honorary awards were handed out. Egot winner Viola Davis...

The American Society of Cinematographers handed out its best visual storytelling in feature film award to “Elvis” on Sunday night, and in doing so, Mandy Walker has become the first woman to win the top prize in the society’s history.

Walker triumphed over Greig Fraser (“The Batman”), Darius Khondji, Claudio Miranda (“Top Gun: Maverick” and Roger Deakins (“Empire of Light”) in a very competitive race.

During her speech, she dedicated her win to “all the women who will win the award after me,” and was met with rapturous applause. She hoped for more women to break glass ceilings and continued, “This is an inclusive representative community. Let us all strive for success and show our mission and create art.”

Walker‘s triumph comes as Oscar voting ends on March 7, where she is also nominated. She became only the third woman ever nominated for cinematography for her work on “Elvis.

Mandy Walker has won the American Society of Cinematographers feature-film award for “Elvis,” making her the first woman ever to win that award. She is only the third female nominee in the category, after Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound” in 2018 and Ari Wegner for “The Power of the Dog” last year.

Walker now has the chance to become the first woman to win the Oscar for cinematography, where she is also the third female nominee in the gender-neutral Oscars category that took the longest to nominate a woman. Her competitors at the Oscars include two who were also nominated by the ASC, Roger Deakins for “Empire of Light” and Darius Khondji for “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truth,” along with James Friend for “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Florian Hoffmeister for “Tar.”

“This is for all the women who will win the award after me, and for...

“Parsing the difference between movies, TV and streamers – it’s becoming really difficult.”

Producers should make the most of collapsing boundaries between feature film and television content, according to Killer Films producer Christine Vachon, speaking today (February 18) in Berlin.

Speaking on a European Film Market industry sessions talk titled ‘Producers Embracing New Horizons’, Vachon said, “To start parsing the difference between movies, TV and streamers – it’s becoming really difficult. I don’t know what makes something television anymore.”

Vachon has produced two films at this year’s Berlinale – Rebecca Miller’s opening title She Came To Me, and Celine Song...

Row Pictures is the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything.

Karsten Stöter’s Germany-based Row Pictures, the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, has unveiled a slate of features from Natja Brunckhorst, Markus Schleinzer and Eliza Petkova.

Brunckhorst’s second feature, Zwei zu Eins, is set to go into production this summer at locations in Central Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. It will be co-produced by the Lübeck-based arm of zischlermann filmproduktion with backing from broadcasters Zdf and Arte as well as Mdm, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw and Bkm.

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

The film about the Sámi minority is now screening in competition at Goteborg.

German sales outfit Beta Cinema has taken international sales rights outside Scandinavia to Ole Giaever’s Let The River Flow, about the Sámi minority standing up for its rights. It recently won the audience award at Tromsø International Film Festival and is screening in the Nordic Competition at Goteborg this week.

It is produced by Norwegian outfit Mer Film, also behind War Sailor and Flee.

Let The River Flow is set in the summer of 1979 as its young protagonist moves to Alta in Northern Norway to teach at an elementary school.

Norway’s Oscar© 2023 Submission for Best International Feature: ‘War Sailor’ by Gunnar VikeneThis is a saga of war but it is not a war story. We do not see the slaughter so vividly depicted in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. The center stage is not the bonding of men under the duress of war. Instead we see a love story fold, unfold, refold and in its midst, we see the bond between the two men who love the same woman.

Surely this film will make the Oscar Shortlist and I predict the Nomination as well if not the Oscar itself.

Starring Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen, Ine Marie Wilmann

The story begins at a party with a loving family Alfred, Cecilia, their three children and his best friend Wally who is a professional sailor. He persuades Alfred to join him as a cook on the merchant ship. When World War II breaks out in 1939, Norway declares itself neutral. On April 9, 1940, German troops invade the country and quickly occupy Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. The Norwegian government rejects the German ultimatum regarding immediate capitulation and it orders its merchant ships to continue delivering goods among the Allies. The sea is the most dangerous place with its unseen torpedos and bombs. Their ships take in survivors from other wreckages including underage youths, both male and female, who must also serve with these sailors. Alfred and Wally struggle for survival in a spiral of violence and death, where at any moment German submarines may attack their valuable vessels. The war sailors have one goal: to survive — and to return home. They are the unarmed civilians on the front lines of a war they never asked to join.

Life at home under the Nazis is also difficult and Alfred’s wife Cecilia, back home in Bergen, has to raise three kids on her own not knowing if her husband is alive or dead. So many years go by as the husband and friend try to survive and the woman with her three children also try to survive.

When British aircrafts attempt to bomb the German submarine bunker in Bergen, they instead hit the primary school at Laksevåg and civilian homes at Nøstet, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. When the news reaches Alfred and Wally in Canada, they wonder if they have anything left at home to return to.

War as the most Destructive Force on Earth is felt and witnessed through a very different lens from the typical war film and packs a greater anti-war whallop than those films where the woman and children are largely ignored as if war were between male forces and women were left to pick up the pieces when it was over. War Sailor spans the years 1939 to 1972 looking at the long-term consequences of what happened during the war years.

A discussion with writer/director Gunnar Vikene and producer Maria Ekerhovd about the making of War Sailor

writer/director Gunnar Vikene

Gunnar Vikene had been thinking about the true stories of the “war sailors” ever since he first heard about them when he was a young boy. Vikene’s father used to paint houses with a man who seemed to have no fears — Vikene found out this man had survived three torpedo attacks during World War II despite never enlisting in the military.

“There were 30,000 of these Norwegian sailors in the war. And there were similar Canadian merchant fleets, and British, and America,” Vikene explains. “They’re all the unsung heroes of that war — they were caught up in it and they couldn’t decide for themselves if they wanted to enlist. Then after the war, they didn’t fit into the idea of the war hero because they had no uniform and had no guns, no medals or anything.”

Vikene explains he wanted to avoid the usual war film cliches. “Yes, we have action scenes when it’s necessary for the story, but it comes down to the human factor. It’s not about the explosion, it’s about the consequences of the explosion.”

He discovered the true story of the real Alfred, Wally and Cecilia back in the early 1990s “and I never forgot it.” He researched their stories and similar stories of the time period and the legacy of war for decades later. Vikene doesn’t call this film a biography because it is a fictionalized version of their lives — “Alfred is not here anymore to explain anything, so I consider these fictional versions of the characters. But they are based on real people,” he says. “What I can say is that every war-related incident in the film actually happened. I read everything that I have come across.”

Another devastating true story in the film is when British aircrafts trying to bomb the German submarine bunkers in Bergen accidentally bomb the primary school at Laksevåg and civilian homes at Nøstet, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. Vikene grew up knowing the story because one of his mother’s second cousins was killed that day, at only age 8, and another of her cousins survived.

What finally inspired him to make the film was a talk a few years ago with his then-12-year-old daughter, looking at images of a wounded child in Syria. He recalls, “My daughter said, ‘I’m so glad we don’t live in a country where we experience that.’ And I pointed out the window and said, ‘relatives of your grandmother were killed right over there.’ And my daughter didn’t know. It was the idea that we need to remind ourselves that we have been through it.”

The story then burst out of him onto the page. “I had been thinking about the story for so long that when I tried to just sit down and get the first draft of the script out, I finished it in a month.”

He dreamed of telling this story for decades “but I never thought I was going to be in a position where I was actually able to make it.” His longtime collaboration with Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film made it possible, working together on their third feature (after their past collaborations Here is Harloldand Vegas).

Producer Maria Ekerhovd

At first, Ekerhovd wasn’t keen on any story related to World War II. “I gave her the script, and told her that it takes place during the war but also after the war. She called me after she read the script and said, ‘This isn’t really a war movie, so I’d love to produce it.’”

Ekerhovd knew the production would be her biggest ever. “It’s a big production and I never actually had the ambition that I would do that kind of big film, that was never a goal I had. But Gunnar came to me in 2016 with the script, and he’d already been thinking of this story for 20 years.”

She was fascinated by this story which hadn’t been told in film before: “Gunnar told me that during the Second World War, Norway had the fifth-biggest merchant fleet in the world. When the war started, the Norwegian government decided that all these normal Norwegian sailors had to sail throughout the war, and they didn’t have a choice. These ships had such an important job to get the supplies to the Allies. Their contribution to the war was never recognized. They were traumatized. The government never even paid them for the job they did during the war until the 1970s. This is a big scandal and it hasn’t been dealt with. This isn’t the kind of black-and-white story we usually see on the big screen. There is more complexity.”

Vikene adds, “All my films before were small arthouse movies, and I knew this would take more money and more resources, and Maria made it happen, she got all the right partners on board quickly.”

Ekerhovd put together the largest budget ever for Norwegian production, at 11m Euros, bringing on co-producers Rohfilm Factory, Studio Hamburg and Falkun Films.

She was excited to continue their 15-year-collaboration in new ways. The producer says, “I think it’s super important to really get to know the people you work with, in order to really know the strengths and weaknesses of each other and be open and honest and trust the process. It’s not going to be easy all the time, and we will have our ups and downs, but we can be together in all of those circumstances.”

Vikene is always impressed that Ekerhovd is brilliant both on the creative and the logistical sides of producing: “She’s a great reader and such a good analyst. And she can be compassionate about a project’s issues. She also doesn’t take no for an answer!”

Assembling the perfect cast

A trio of established Norwegian talents play the leads — Kristoffer Joner (The Wave) plays family man Alfred; Pal Sverre Hagen (Kon-Tiki) is his old friend Wally; and Ine Marie Wilmann (Sonia: The White Swan) plays Alfred’s wife Cecilia.

Vikene had made his first feature, 2002’s Falling Sky, with Joner and they have become good friends over the years. “He’s a fantastic actor and human being and I had written the script with him in mind, I was so lucky he said yes,” Vikene says.

Despite being two of the most acclaimed contemporary actors in Norway, Joner and Hagen had never met before. “It’s strange that in little Norway they hadn’t met each other. But after two minutes in the room together, I just felt that they really respected and liked each other. They became great friends during the shoot and I think you see that on screen,” the director says.

He had also worked with Wilmann before, and had a special challenge for her in this role of the wife left home in Bergen. He remembers, “I told her, ‘The trick this time was that you have to learn the local dialect.’ This is really difficult and very different from her own. I told her, ‘You have to learn it — not only learning the lines, you have to speak fluidly so we can improvise.’ And she spent a year learning it and was brilliant.”

“The process of working with the actors was very nice,” Vikene continues. “I told the actors that you need to own your characters. Because this is something that I need you to take responsibility for. And they did so in such a fantastic way.”

He also tried not to rehearse each scene too much. “We talked about the characters and scenes a lot but I do very few rehearsals. I was afraid if we rehearsed it too much they were going to drain it emotionally.”

An epic production

The film was originally scheduled to shoot in 2020 but had to pause for a year due to the pandemic. They eventually shot it during March to October 2021, in Norway, Malta and Germany, with just over 60 shooting days.

They worked with a mostly Maltese crew in Malta and again with German crews in Germany, and Vikene praises them as “great professionals,” but he was still glad to get back to the Norwegian part of the shoot “working with a lot of people I’ve worked with before, with so many people pitching in because my film family is here.”

The scale of the project was a step up for Ekerhovd. “It was super exciting…it was a new challenge that it was such a big film, you can’t just wing it. It was fun because it was learning new skills and working with new partners and seeing how that side of the business works.”

Because Vikene has also worked in big budget TV like Occupied, he found working a bigger-budget film wasn’t a shock to the system. “The process is basically the same thing as with a lower-budget film, it just involves a lot more people.”

One key collaborator was acclaimed DoP Sturla Brandth. “Sturla is one of the best cinematographers on the planet and he’s also such a great human being — that was one of the most inspiring collaborations I’ve had in my career,” the director says.

They didn’t use typical war films for visual inspiration, instead watching documentary footage from the era or even more recent documentary films like The White Helmets.

“We wanted that documentary feel when it comes to closeness to the character,” Vikene adds. The team shot digitally — and Vikene praises colourist William Kjarval for giving it “a filmic look” in the grading process.

The big set pieces were very carefully planned. “We prepared really well for all the technical sequences, so that was storyboarded in detail in advance,” Vikene explains.

And as much as possible was shot in camera, not added in post later. He adds, “I see so many films where you have 10 seconds of a CGI ship in an establishing shot. We weren’t interested in that. We only wanted the CGI to enhance what we already shot, to make the story better.”

Scenes of the ships and raft on the ocean are actually shot in the sea, not in a water tank. They thought the authenticity was worth going the extra mile. As Vikene recalls, “Sturla thought we would be able to detect the distinction where the real water ends, and maybe it would feel not quite right. The real thing is always better.”

They also didn’t just use spectacle for spectacle’s sake. “The explosions and actions are there because they have real consequences for human beings. There are a lot of very romantic films made about war and the great heroes, and we tried to stay away from that. It was a film about survival to make it home to your loved ones, not about heroism in action. I hope you can see on screen the fear and the panic in the those war scenes.”

Ekerhovd adds, “I think what Gunnar has achieved with the film is to actually give us a feeling of how it was for them to be out on the boats and also how it really played out for the families at home.”

Vikene also praises the authentic work across so many members of the crew — such as by costume designer Stefanie Bieker (“she gave it a texture that feels really believable and not like a typical costume drama”; makeup designer Jens Bartram and his team (“they nailed it for this documentary feel we were going for”) production designer Tamo Kunz. The director adds that editors Peter Brandt and Anders Albjerg Kristiansen “were so enthusiastic and brave during the process, and challenged me and the material in a great and constructive way.”

Honoring the legacy of the war sailors

Vikene hopes this film will personally touch people who still live with the legacy of the war sailors. “People remember being children and not knowing if their beloved father is coming home. I’ve spoken to so many children of those kinds of families. That’s an important part of the story. It is so much about what happens with families after the war.”

He felt the importance of the story today when the team were shooting in his hometown of Bergen. “We were shooting in places that were so close to the school that was bombed, and there are so many people in Bergen who had families impacted by that, so that felt very special. People stopped to tell us their stories. It felt so close in a way that was inspiring, we were dealing with real people’s stories and that’s a big responsibility.”

The cast and crew were away from their families for four and a half months while making the film, and while that’s not as extreme as the story of the sailors — Vikene wanted the cast and crew to draw on that feeling. He told them, “Take this emotion that you come home to your children and they have grown five centimeters since last time you saw them. And then multiply that emotion by a million. That’s how they felt.”

Sadly, this kind of war story still feels relevant today. “This story about the civilians, the working-class perspective hasn’t been told,” Vikene says. “90% of people dying in war today are civilians. They aren’t wearing uniforms. You just have to look at Ukraine.”

He continues, “I haven’t lived through war. If you live long enough, you have things in your life that you cannot fix for ourselves. Things that we can’t control and has sent our life in a different direction. I hope everyone can relate to that feeling. I hope we can all relate to having a father that you don’t know if you will ever see again, or relate to being a wife who doesn’t know if her husband is alive when she wakes up in the morning. I think on a basic human level, people can relate to that. I hope the audience can identify with the characters, there is something universal about the feelings they have towards each other.”

The Crew

Gunnar Vikene — The Director

Gunnar Vikene directed his first feature film, Falling Sky (Himmelfall) in 2002. His following feature films — Trigger(2007), Vegas (2009), and Here is Harold (2014) — have all received both critical acclaim and a number of international prizes.

In 2017 he directed the TV-series Borderline, which earned him a best director-prize at Gullruten (Norwegian Emmys). He also directed several episodes of the acclaimed show Occupied (2020) and was in 2022 again nominated for a best director-prize for his work in the TV-series Pørni (2021).

Gunnar lives in Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. Before starting to work with films he was a submarine officer for several years.

Sturla Brandth GRØVLEN — Director Of Photography

Sturla Brandth Grøvlen is a Norwegian cinematographer based in Denmark. He won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for his work on Victoria (2015) and has since worked on films such as Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, Eskil Vogt’s The Innocents, Benh Zeitlin’s Wendy and Josephine Decker’s Shirley.

Volker Bertelmann — Composer

Volker Bertelmann is a German composer. He won an Oscar for his work on Lion (2016), together with Dustin O’Halloran. He has composed scores for such films as Ammonite (2020), The Old Guard (2020) and All Quiet On The Western Front (2022).

The Main Cast

Kristoffer Joner — Alfred

Kristoffer Joner has starred in Norwegian and International films as The Wave, The Quake, Mission: Impossible — Fallout and The Revenant. He has won the Norwegian Film Award Amanda for Best Male Actor three times and starred in Gunnar Vikene’s first feature film Falling Sky in 2002.

Ine Marie Wilmann — Cecilia

Ine Marie Wilmann has starred in Norwegian films and TV-series as Sonja: The White Swan (Sundance 2018), Homesick (Sundance 2015), Exit (2021-) and Furia (2021-). She has won the Amanda Award for Best Female Lead and the Norwegian Emmy for her work in the TV-series The Third Eye, directed by Gunnar Vikene.

PÅL Sverre Hagen — SIGBJØRN

Pål Sverre Hagen has starred in Norwegian films such as Kon-Tiki, Troubled Water, Amundsen and Out Stealing Horses. He has won the Amanda Award for Best Actor two times — most recently for his performance in The Middle Man(Toronto, 2021).

International Sales Agent Beta Films has licensed the film to

Norway, Germany, Malta 2022

Length 151 min

Screen Ratio 1:1.85

Format Digital 3.2K

Sound 7.1 Dolby Digital

Languages Norwegian, English, German...

Belgium’s Oscar© 2023 Submission for Best International Feature: ‘Close’ by Lukas DhontTipped for a top spot on the Oscar Nominated Best International Feature, ‘Close’, the second feature directed by the young Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont brings the innocence of youth into a confrontation with uneasy societal agreements about what is and what is not acceptable. Young boys are especially sensitive to their peers’ opinions and these two boys, friends forever, are suddenly put into a situation demanding a sense of oneself that they are still too young to have developed fully. When it premiered in Competition at Cannes, it received a 12-minute standing ovation, and shared the festival’s Grand Prix with Claire Denis’ ‘Stars At Noon’.

The intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys suddenly gets disrupted. Close stars Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele as two thirteen year old boys, Léo and Rémi, whose tender friendship is tragically broken. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother. The delicacy with which the two young actors are handled speaks highly of the director Lucas Dhont.

The fragile bud of sexual awakening is a suject explored as well in his previous film, his 2018 debut, about a young transgender dancer. Girl was also handled with such gentle honesty that the subject to reveals itself to our eyes without destroying its integrity. Girl went on to win the Cannes Camera d’Or in Un Certain Regard in 2018. It also won Cannes’ Fipresci Prize and Un Certain Regard’s Best Actor award for Victor Polster as well as the Queer Palm.

Dhont is quoted as saying, “There are definitely echoes of Girl in Close, recurring themes, especially the violence involved in conforming to a certain norm, not being able to be oneself, being subjected to a certain vision of masculinity, and not being able to assert our fragility…I also wanted to talk about brutality. How it can wipe out such fragile, tender things, both in the world but also inside of us; how we cut flowers, how colours disappear, inside of us.” (Cineuropa.org)

Tangential to this blog, but relevent to the 2023 Oscar contenders, this dancer, in Girl, a female, could easily have been the male ballet dancer we meet in the Norwegian Oscar contender War Sailor. I will write more about that other tipped for the top film, but here I want to point out that both ballet dancers are confronted with the ignorance of others and are handled by their respective directors in a fashion that gives us a feeling of completion and satisfaction.

The screenplays for both were cowritten with Angelo Tijssens. “The film says a lot, but in few words; it’s more about gestures, looks and silences.

I find it’s a really complicated thing, writing dialogue! We try just as hard to convey what the character wants to say as what the viewer needs to understand. As a teen, I was pretty good at mime! I copied others’ movements and behaviours. I get a lot of inspiration from dance and the work of choreographers and dancers, who manage to express their emotions through their bodies and their movements. I decided very quickly that this was the language I wanted to use to launch myself into film: body language. Before wanting to become a director, I wanted to be a dancer. I feel like I’m trying to make some of this dancing dream come true through my cinematic language. Expressing what I want to express, without words.” (Cineuropa.org)

The Match Factory previously handled Girl as well as the film Close. During Cannes this year of Close, The Match Factory sold over 100 territories to Close, including North America to A24; Australia/ Nz to Madman; Baltics-a-One; Benelux-Lumiere; Czech Republic and Slovakia-Artcam; Ex-Yugo-mcf; France-Diaphana, Germany and Austria-Pandora; Greece-Ama; Israel-Lev; Italy-Lucky Red and Bim; Netherlands-Cassestte for theatrical, Vedette for TV; Poland-New Horizons; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Scandinavia-Future; So. Korea-Challan; Spain-Vertigo; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Taiwan-Filmware; Thailand-Sahamangkolfilm; Turkey, UK, Ireland, Latam, Turkey, India-mubi.

Producers are Michiel Dhont and Dirk Impens for Menuet and co-producers are France’s Diaphana who is also the French distributor, the Netherlands’ Topkapi Films and Belgium’s Versus Productions.

Click here to read the full article.

The EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival has unveiled its main competition lineup, including Elvis, White Noise, Top Gun: Maverick and Empire of Light, which is set to open the 30th edition.

Camerimage, held annually in Poland, has also booked into its main competition the cinematographic work for All Quiet on the West Front, War Sailor, Tár, The Perfect Number and The Angel in the Wall. The international festival has become a bellwether for what’s to come in the cinematography Oscar race.

Camerimage earlier announced that Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light, which was lensed by Roger Deakins, will open the 2022 edition set to be held Nov. 12-19 in Toruń, Poland. Mendes will also receive the Special Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Director during the festival.

Also previously announced, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Stephen Burum (Hoffa) will accept the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award during this year’s festival.

Submissions for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category closed on Monday, Oct. 3, and at this point more than 80 countries have announced their submissions for this year’s Oscars.

The highest-profile entry comes from Mexico, which submitted “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” from “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Inarritu. The film received a mixed reaction after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, but Inarritu has trimmed more than 22 minutes from that version, and Netflix is releasing “Bardo” in U.S. theaters.

Other top contenders include another Netflix release, director Edward Berger’s German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” as well as South Korea’s “Decision to Leave” from Park Chan-wook and Belgium’s “Close” from Lukas Dhont.

And in a year with relatively few clear favorites, other films with a good chance of making the 15-film shortlist include Austria’s “Corsage,...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...