Arne Lindtner Næss
Arne Lindtner Næss (b. 1944) was educated as an actor and has performed at most every theatre in Norway, in addition to numerous roles in film and television since his cinematic debut in 1969. Since 1985 he’s also expanded to the roles of writer, director and creative producer for both stage and screen, and has established himself as a veteran of Norwegian family- and children-films.
Næss started writing for the screen with the television drama De syv søstre (a series in which he also portrayed a main character) in 1996, and went on to direct 25 episodes of the Norwegian soap opera Hotel Cæsar in 1998-1999. In 2001 he served as both director and creative producer on the childrens television-series The Junior Olsen Gang’s First Haul, which led to his debut as a feature film director when the franchise moved from the small to the big screen with it’s first film: The Junior Olsen Gang goes Submarine. Since then Næss has directed all 6 of the films in the franchise (as per 2011). In between work on the Junior Olsen Gang-films Næss has also directed two other features: Finding Friends in 2005 and SOS - Summer of Suspense in 2008, both successful children- and family-oriented fare. Both of these films have participated in festivals all over the world and received several awards: Finding Friends won the award for best feature film by the childrens jury at the European Youth Film Festival of Flanders and was awarded the Norwegian National Film Award Amanda for best children’s film in 2005, while SOS - Summer of Suspense won the children films jury’s main award "Place aux Famillies" at the Montreal International Children's Film Festival in 2009 – to name a few.
