Fjord. Photo: Tudor Panduru
Co-productions with Norwegian contributions made a major impact at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Romanian-Norwegian co-production Fjord received several of the festival’s most prestigious awards, while Elephants in the Fog and Ben’Imana were also among this year’s award winners.
Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord won the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The film also received the FIPRESCI Prize in the main competition, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the François Chalais Prize and the Citizenship Prize. Fjord is a Romanian-Norwegian co-production, supported by the Norwegian Film Institute.
“This adds to an increasingly impressive run of awards for producers Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver of Eye Eye Pictures. They have earned a well-deserved reputation as sought-after collaborators for filmmakers of the very highest calibre, both in Norway and internationally,” says Kjersti Mo, CEO of the Norwegian Film Institute.
Fjord follows a deeply religious Norwegian-Romanian couple with five children who relocate from Romania to a small town in Norway. The film stars Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan.
“This Romanian-Norwegian co-production offers a sharp and thought-provoking examination of Norwegian social structures, encouraging both reflection and debate,” says Kjersti Mo.
“It is a tremendous honour to have contributed to Mungiu winning his second Palme d’Or in Cannes. The award confirms his position as one of the truly great filmmakers of our time, and having his perspective on Norway is a remarkable privilege. We believe the film will spark discussion and reflection here at home, and we very much look forward to sharing it with Norwegian audiences,” say the film’s Norwegian producers, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver from Eye Eye Pictures.
Two other co-productions with Norwegian contributions received awards at this year’s festival.
Abinash Bikram Shah’s Elephants in the Fog won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard.
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejamo’s Ben’Imana received both the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature and the FIPRESCI Prize in Un Certain Regard.
Both films have a Norwegian minority co-producer and have received funding through Sørfond. Sørfond grants top financing for co-production of fiction and documentary films where the main producer is located in a DAC-country.country. The Norwegian Film Institute has several funding shcemes for co-productions.
Eivind Landsvik’s feature film debut Low Expectations had its world premiere in the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. This marks the second time director and screenwriter Eivind Landsvik has screened work in Cannes, following the selection of his short film Tits for the festival’s short film competition in 2023.
The Gheorghius – Catholic and Romanian - settle in a Norwegian village, the mother’s birthplace. They quickly bond with the Halbergs, who live in the neighbouring house near the bay. Despite their very different upbringings, the children of both families soon become close friends. Until the Gheorghius are suspected of hurting their own children.
Set in Rwanda in 2012, the film follows Vénéranda, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, who is involved in community-led justice and reconciliation. As she faces mounting pressures in her work, a personal crisis within her family forces her to confront the limits of her beliefs.
In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a community of transgender women. She dreams of escaping to a «normal» life with the man she is in love with. But when one of her daughters disappears, she must investigate and choose between love and responsibility to her community.
