Main focus on Nordic films
We are launching new Nordic competitions for fiction and documentary film at this year's festival.
- The Nordic film says something about us in the Nordic countries, about who we are and where we belong, it says more about what matters to us than what a European film can. Nordic stories like The Bridge and The Killing, as well as the books and movies about Lisbeth Salander, have managed just that the last ten years. The films on our program are just as good, funny, captivating and entertaining, says Program Director Cato Fossum.
Award-winning films
Joern Utkilen's Lake over Fire was announced a couple of weeks ago as the opening film for this years’s festival. In addition, six other films will compete for the prize for the best Nordic fiction. They have all gathered praise at significant international film festivals worldwide.
- We are pleased to show the new films from the Swedish directors Jesper Ganslandt (Jimmie), Gabriela Pichler (Amateurs) and last, but not least The Real Estate by Måns Månsson, which is a lovely and weird film about Stockholm's underworld, Fossum continuous.
Jimmie was the opening film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January and Amateurs was this year opening film at Göteborg film festival, where it also won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film. The Real Estate was nominated for a Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The Danish film Team Hurricane depicts the life of eight different and exciting teen lives, while the Finnish Thick Lashes of Lauri Mäntvaara is a modern comedy with strong female characters. And Winter Brothers, by the Icelandic Hlynur Palmason, won the main prize at last year’s CPH:PIX,
The prize for the best Nordic fiction is 50.000 NOK, about 5500 Euros, and is sponsored by Blockbuster. The prize goes to the film’s director.
Thematic diversity
There is a broad specter of themes among the seven documentaries in the Nordic competition. We find films that introduce us for people we don’t meet in our everyday life, next to music documentaries and stories that blurs the line between facts and fiction.
And finally, there are films that depicts distinctive places and environments:
- Both Hobbyhorse Revolution, a film about young girls competing in contests about riding toy horses, and the amazing portrait of a small town in Giants and the Morning After are good examples of the latter, says Fossum.
There are two Norwegian documentaries in the competition as well: Ellen Ugelstad’s Making Sense Together take a glance at the Norwegian mental health care system, and has its world premiere at the festival. Karen Winther's documentary Exit describes extremist environments - both in Norway and abroad.
We also find the music documentary about the Swedish rapper Silvana Imam, named Silvana. In The Distant Barking of Dogs we visit the little Ukrainian village of Hnutove, the last outpost at the front line between the pro-Russian People's Republic of Donetsk. And The Stranger is a unique and interesting hybrid project based on one of Denmark's most popular podcast collective.
The director of the best Nordic documentary will receive a prize of 25.000 NOK, about 2700 Euros.
Closing film of Oslo Pix 2018
The Danish thriller, The Guilty, by the Swedish director Gustav Möller, is this year's Closing film. The film had its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year and has previously been shown at the festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, and Göteborg.
The Guilty tell the story of police officer Asger Holm has been put on emergency call handler duty, following some unknown incident in the workplace. His workday now consists of answering the mundane as well as the more serious emergency calls from the people of Denmark. Asger is bored and mostly on autopilot. But one day, a woman calls in and tells him she is currently being kidnapped. Everything suddenly changes for Asger, and he will do anything in his power to rescue this woman – whether or not he is following the law at every turn is secondary to him.
Program Director Cato Fossum thinks this film is the perfect Closing film:
- This is a film that surprises the audience and has a high entertainment value. It is a film that people will talk about for a long time after they leave the cinema.
The whole program and all tickets for this year's festival are in sale on May 24th.