It’s officially called The Norwegian International Film Festival, and although there certainly are several more of the kind, there’s a point to Haugesund’s confident claim – since 1987, this is a major fixture on the Norwegian and Nordic “cine-map”, industry- and otherwise.

The festival’s film market, New Nordic Films, celebrates its 25^th edition this year. Taking place August 20-23, it will receive industry representatives from far and near checking in to catch up with the hottest and most recent developments within Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Swedish and, not least, Norwegian screen activities. 19 market screenings are announced, 13 of them world premieres. 20 titles form the Works in Progress section, with six of the projects nominated for the Eurimages Lab Project Award. The Nordic Co-Production Market presents 17 projects in development. The festival also hosts the Scandinavian Debut pitching session and screens works from the Nordic film schools in the Next Nordic Generation section. For the third consecutive year, Haugesund also hosts the announcement of the nominees to the annual Nordic Council Film Prize.

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The official festival programme offers a handpicked selection of recent international festival favourites and also some anticipated national world premieres. This year opens with The Ash Lad – In Search of the Golden Castle by Mikkel Sandemose. The film is the second instalment out of three in the hugely successful Norwegian Ash Lad saga, which started out with The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Eili Harboe
scheda film], also directed by Sandemose. Aiming at both Shrek and Lord of the Rings admirers, the franchise has thus far played to very handsome box office results. Other official programme highlights include the premiere screenings of two brand new Norwegian TV series, the youth/coming-of-age drama Nudes (three episodes), written and directed by Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad, and the crime drama Seizure (two episodes), written and created by Meghan Gallagher, directed by Rune Denstad Langlo and Eirik Svensson and starring Anders Danielsen Lie and Anders Baasmo Christiansen.

Finally, the national annual Norwegian film awards, the Amandas, will be handed out in festive gala surroundings on Saturday 17, with this year’s favourite tips safely being Hans Petter Moland’s Berlin-screened competitor Out Stealing Horses [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Hans Petter Moland
scheda film] and Eirik Svensson’s Harajuku [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], sporting ten and nine nominations respectively.

The Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund runs August 17-23.