Actualités

Nevertheless, last year saw a 57.1% drop in admissions, according to figures published by the association Film & Kino. The Oslo-based cinema association Film & Kino has published the figures for the country’s 2020 box office. Despite a significant drop in cinemagoing (-57.1% admissions), caused by the shutdown of the cinemas between March and May and the newly enforced restrictions throughout the year, domestic titles secured an historic 35.6% market share, beating the previous record figure from 2018 (25.1%). Overall, the 2020 national box office totalled 4.8 million admissions (as against 11.3 million in 2019) and made a profit of 557,743,079 Norwegian crowns. In detail, the highest-grossing title of the year was Hallvard Bræin’s Asphalt Burning, distributed by the Norwegian division of Sf Studios and released in October. Other successful domestic productions include Gunhild Enger and Rune Spaans’ Two Buddies and a Badger 2 - The...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Channel 4 releases a first look trailer and still for Russell T Davies’ “It’s a Sin,” Acorn TV commissions a “Whitstable Pearl” series adaptation, “Two Buddies and a Badger 2 – The Great Big Beast” posts Norway’s best opening weekend box office, and Jackson Wild announces 2020 award winners.

First Look

Channel 4 in the U.K. has dropped a first-look teaser and still image for Russell T Davies’ highly anticipated upcoming series “It’s a Sin.”

A fictionalized look bat at the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the series features a superstar cast led by Olly Alexander (“God Help the Girl”) and featuring Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Tracy Ann Oberman, Shaun Dooley, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells, Nathaniel Curtis and Lydia West.

Starting at the beginning of the decade, “It’s a Sin” follows Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin, three new arrivals to London looking to start a new life.

Less Is More, the program launched by Le Group Ouest to help young helmers such as Maimouna Doucouré (“Cuties”), has unveiled the trailer of Daria Woszek’s “Marygoround” which will have its world premiere at South By Southwest.

The film, which was developed within the framework of Less Is More, revolves around Mary, a lonely grocery store worker who lives a rather dull life in a small town. On the eve of her 50th birthday, Mary’s life soon begins to take on a totally unexpected turn when she overdoses on the hormone patches prescribed by her doctor and receives the visit of a free-spirited niece. Mary’s senses and imagination suddenly come alive.

“The film is a quirky, darkly comic tale starring a stunning screen newcomer Grażyna Misiorowska, (and it tells the) story of a woman reclaiming her own body,” said South By Southwest in its presentation of “Marygoround...

Previous projects include Nathalie Biancheri’s ‘Wolf’ starring George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp.

European training and coaching development programme Less Is More has selected 16 low-budget feature projects for its 2020 scheme, as well as 12 ‘development angels’ to join the development process.

Open to projects at script development stage from first to third-time feature filmmakers from across the globe, the scheme received 460 applications from 90 countries – a 37% increase on the previous year’s total.

See full list of projects below.

12 of this year’s projects are European productions, with one each from Tunisia, Rwanda and Mexico plus a Palestine-Denmark co-production.

Less Is More...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces

What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).

Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*

Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...

Fares Fares thriller The Nile Hilton Incident gets top grant of $1.3m while Ben Kingsley and Theo James thriller also among those backed.

The Swedish Film Institute has revealed the 29 projects to receive support in its latest round of funding.

The projects include Per Fly’s (Manslaughter) new political thriller, a transgender drama, a documentary about a female boxer and a murder thriller starring Fares Fares.

The projects backed by the Swedish Film Institute in the past three months are listed below, in descending order of amount granted:

Full list of backed projects:

The Nile Hilton Incident, wr/dir Tarik Saleh, prod Kristina Aberg. Thriller inspired by the true story of a Lebanese reality TV show winner who is murdered at a hotel in Dubai. Fares Fares stars. Sfi funding granted $1.3m (11m Sek)

Becker, wr/dir Martin Larsson, prod Erik Magnusson. Drama about a man’s quest for money and power in the southern Swedish village...

Jesse Armstrong and Gunhild Enger are amongst the ten film-makers/animators highlighted by Ecounters Short Film and Animation Festival as rising stars.Scroll down for full list

Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival has unveiled the ten film-makers and animators selected for its Future Encounters strand.

Launched in 2011, the Future Encounters strand aims to highlight ten upcoming filmmakers and animators whose work demonstrates a distinctive, cinematic and artistic vision that makes them ones to watch at this year’s festival.

The list includes Jesse Armstrong, the co-writer of TV series Peep Show and Chris Morris film Four Lions, who has made his directorial debut with No Kaddish in Carmarthen, a short comedy drama about three teenagers who find themselves in a love triangle.

Other on the list include actor Jonny Philips (The Last Great Wilderness) and Chloe Robichaud, whose debut feature Sarah Prefers To Run is in competition at the BFI London Film Festival.

Gunhild Enger from Norway...