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The 22nd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival kicked off Friday night in the city of Cluj-Napoca with the international premiere of Northern Comfort, a comedy directed by Icelandic filmmaker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and with a tribute to the film’s star, Timothy Spall.

The famed British character actor, known for his roles in Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and the Harry Potter films, received this year’s lifetime achievement award at the festival’s opening gala.

The Icelandic-uk-German co-production Northern Comfort is part of the massive Nordic Focus at the festival this year, with more than 40 films from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as live music performances and cine-concerts. Some of the Nordic highlights include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Lars von Trier...

The Romanian film festival runs June 9-18.

Transilvania International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 22nd edition which takes place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The official competition is made up of 12 features while the documentary strand, entitled What’s Up Doc?, will screen 10 titles. All of the films are from first and second-time directors.

Among the competition selection is Ion Bors’ Carbon which premiered in San Sebastian’s New Directors strand last year, having won the festival’s Wip Europa Industry and Wip Europa awards the previous year. The dark comedy, surrounding the Transnistrian conflict of the 1990s, is...

High profile Danish playwright Christian Lollike spoke to Variety about his feature film debut “The Cake Dynasty” at the Goteborg Festival’s Nordic Film Market. Lollike is presenting the movie in the market’s work-in-progress sidebar.

Represented in international markets by LevelK, the immigration-themed satirical and romantic drama stars Nicolas Bro (“Riders of Justice”) as Neil, a middle-aged factory boss whose family-run cake factory is on the verge of bankruptcy. Deeply depressed, the man embarks on a desperate mission to save the business and starts selling low-calorie sweets, as well as hiring refugees to work in the factory. The seismic changes cause him to open his heart in a new way.

“I’ve wanted to make a sort of a fairy tale about the immigrant situation in Denmark for the last twenty years. In that sense, The film is a reflection on what we call Danish or European values,” says Lollike,...

Anders Klarlund’s Nordic noir feature “The Last Client” with “Borgen” star Signe Egholm Olsen has been acquired by international sales and aggregation outfit LevelK.

The thriller, produced by Morten Rasmussen at well-established Danish banner Deluca Film As, revolves around the intense relationship between a psychotherapist and her dangerous new client. The strong cast is headlined by Egholm Olsen and Anton Hjejle (“Liberty”).

“The Last Client” was written by Anders Klarlund and Jacob Weinreich, the creative duo known as A. J. Kazinski. Together, the authors have penned several international bestselling novels, feature films and TV series, such as “The Last Good Man,” “White Sands” and the upcoming Netflix original, “Loving Adults.”

Klarlund is a writer-director known for high-concept movies, including “The Eighteenth,” the dystopian fantasy film “Possessed,” and the animated feature “Strings,” whose voice cast included James McAvoy. He also wrote episodes of the popular crime series “White Sands” and “Loving Adults.

18 works in progress by some of the Nordic region’s biggest names – Bille August, Björn Runge, the multi-prized Jp Valkeapää and Malou Reymann will be showcased at the hybrid Nordic Film Market (Feb. 3-6), along with some Sundance and Rotterdam competition entries.

The Nfm runs parallel to the final stretches of the Göteborg Film Festival (Jan.28-Feb.6).

So far, over 450 international delegates have signed up for the major Nordic film confab. Only 250 will be able to attend in-person, due to Covid restrictions in Sweden.

“We’ve received a huge interest from professionals to attend in-person, following the decision of Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin’s European Film Market to go online. It’s been very difficult to say ‘no’ to people, but our priority is to guarantee a safe event,” said Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström who underlines the various safety measures to be implemented at the Nfm, from vaccination checks,...

International sales and aggregation outfit LevelK has picked up darkly funny feature “The Cake Dynasty,” toplining Anders Thomas Jensen regular Nicolas Bro. The feature is adapted from the eponymous stage play by debut director Christian Lollike.

One of Denmark’s most lauded contemporary playwrights and stage directors, Lollike is well-known for his topical and often politically-charged works staged in Europe, Australia and the U.S.

Co-written by Lollike and Sigrid Johannesen, “The Cake Dynasty” turns on debt-ridden cake factory owner Niels Agger whose numerous suicide attempts have failed miserably. His wife Else tries to save the factory by asking her daughter and son-in-law for help. The young business school graduates suggest a comprehensive modernisation of the factory, focusing on trendsetting healthy food. Stressed about these new ideas, Niels instead falls in love with the factory’s new cleaning lady, Zeinab, originally from Iraq.

Cast against Nicolas Bro as the crisis-stricken...

Copenhagen, Denmark — Plans by a Danish theater to stage a play based on the manifesto of Norwegian anti-Muslim extremist Anders Behring Breivik drew harsh criticism from lawmakers and a relative of one of his victims Thursday.

Director Christian Lollike, head of the small Cafe Teateret in the Danish capital Copenhagen, said he wants to use the confessed killer's text to try and understand his mindset as a means of avoiding a repeat of Breivik's July 22 bomb-and-shooting rampage which left 77 people dead.

Lollike told the Politiken newspaper that "it was a terrible tragedy," but "it can happen again."

Lollike was not available for further comment Thursday, but press officer Jeanette Kruse said the report and quotes were correct.

In Breivik's 1,500-page document which was posted online before the attacks, he laid out a blueprint for a nationalist revolution to overthrow governments he claims have let their countries down by allowing Muslim immigrants to settle in Europe.