Three Norwegian Dramas to be presented in Lille’s Series Mania
Oslo Zoo and The Oil Fund selected for the main programme and Norway’s Crimeshare will be pitched in the French festival, which runs between 27 April-5 May
370 projects from 40 countries were submitted to the 9th edition of the festival, which is concluded on 2-4 May by a programme for industry professionals including seminars and the introduction of new productions from different European regions. A jury presided over by vice ceo Christophe Riandee, of Gaumont, will give a €50,000 prize to the best pitch.
The Oil Fund
Award-winning Dutch-Norwegian director Harald Zwart’s 10x30min The Oil Fund (Oljefondet) – produced by his own Zwart Arbeid for commercial broadcaster TVNorge (Discovery) – will have its world launch in the festival (International Panorama).
With Thomas Gullestad and Kathrine Thorborg Johansen in the leads, Zwart, Tom Gulbrandsen, Petter Holmsen and Maren Skolem have scripted the comedy about Per Grepp, a financial genius of questionable ethics, who is forced to work with Katrine, who is part of the ethics committee for a multi-million-$ oil investment fund.
Crimeshare
Crimeshare, a new Norwegian television series written by Peder Fuglerud, will be one of the 16 projects pitched to potential financiers at Series Mania, the international TV series festival in Lille, France, which takes place between 27 April-5 May.
Presented by Anagram Norway’s Anne Kolbjørnsen and OM Araldsen, Crimeshare is inspired by a real-life financial crime story from the 1990s, when UK mobster John “Goldfinger” Palmer decided the ideal way to launder money was by infiltrating a Norwegian hotel project on Gran Canary with his team.
In 1988 Norwegian entrepreneur Bjørn Lyng began the construction of the 1,000-flat timeshare complex – the biggest of the islands – and in the end it was Lyng who stood up against “Goldfinger.” (Fuglerud, the writer, lived on Gran Canary at the time and eventually became Lyng’s son-in-law).
Oslo Zoo
Norwegian director Øyvind Holtmon’s Oslo Zoo, a 8x12-20min series from Norwegian pubcaster NRK, will participate in the Short Forms competition. Starring Amir Asgharnejad, the dramedy follows 30-year-old Amir, who - in spite of a masters degree - struggles to get work.
His debt to his girlfriend Charlotte (Eline Grødal) grows, and to save their relationship, he lies about getting a job at the university, while desperately trying to earn money as an Uber driver. The Mikael Diseth production scripted by Holtmon, Eirik Holsve and Steinar Klouman Hallert will have its world premiere in Lille.