The new line-up of co-productions was presented at Film i Väst’s annual press conference in Cannes with several Swedish and international directors, producers and actors attending. Further, this year’s co-productions competing at the Cannes Film Festival were presented, including Ruben Östlund’s The Square being nominated for a Palme d’Or.
The first title to be presented at Film i Väst’s annual press conference was THE ADVENTURES OF HALVDAN VIKING based on Martin Widmark’s beloved characters in the novels about the young Viking boy.
Director Gustaf Åkerblom and the main cast consisting of Vilgot Hedtjärn as Halvdan, his friend Meia played by Ellinea Simbalis, both 12 years old, and renowned actor Peter Haber as the blacksmith, explained how they intended to bring these literary characters to the screen. The film is produced by Jessica Ask for Anagram Production in co-production with Film i Väst, SF Studios, that is also distributing, TV4 and with the support of the Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The film will start shooting in Västra Götaland in August and the theatrical release is scheduled for the autumn of 2018.
Film i Väst’s co-production BREAKING THE SURFACE, a claustrophobic suspense drama about two scuba diving sisters who are trapped in the depths during a winter dive, was presented by director Joachim Hedén and the producers Jonas Sörensen and Julia Gebauer. Nordisk Film is distributing. Producer Peter “Piodor” Gustafsson and director Ali Abasi presented BORDER, based on the short story by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. The film revolves around a border patrol officer with a sixth sense for detecting smugglers. Shooting is scheduled to start in 2018 and the film will be distributed by Nordisk Film.
Season number two of the long awaited TV-series SPRINGFLODEN based on Cilla & Rolf Börjlind’s script was announced by producer Francy Suntinger and lead actor Kjell Bergqvist. The series is directed by Pontus Klänge and Niklas Ohlson and shooting has already started in Marseille and will subsequently move on to Gothenburg later in August. SPRINGFLODEN 2 is a co-production between Swedish Television, Filmlance, Film i Väst, ZDF, Nad Con and Lumiére, with support of the Swedish Film Institute. The television premiere is expected to take place in the fall of 2018.
Actors Fares Fares and Nikolaj Lie Kaas gathered with the producers Louise Vesth and Madeleine Ekman from Zentropa to announce Christoffer Boe (Spies & Glistrup, 2013) as the director of THE PURITY OF VENGEANCE, the crime thriller after Jussi Adler-Olsen’s best-selling novel. This will be a continuation of the successes of The keeper of lost causes (2013), Fasandræberne (2014) and Flaskepost fra P (2016) about inspector Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad from Division Q, which has so far sold 2.2 million tickets at the box office. The screenplay is written by Nikolaj Arcel, Bo Hr. Hansen and Mikkel Nørgaard. Film i Väst is co-producing and the film will start shooting in December 2017 with a scheduled premiere in the fall of 2018 and distributed by Nordisk Film.
Following the box office success of the disaster movie The Wave (2015), Martin Sundland from Fantefilm was at Film i Väst’s press event in Cannes to announce his new drama BETRAYED, about a dark chapter in the Norwegian Second World War history, accompanied by director Marius Holst (The king of Devil’s Island, 2010, Cross My Heart and Hope To Die, 1994) and the screenwriter Harald Rosenløw Eeg (The King’s Choice 2016, The Quake 2018). Film i Väst is co-producing BETRAYED and shooting is scheduled to start next year.
During this year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival, no less than four of Film i Väst co-productions are competing as previously announced.
Producer Erik Hemmendorff presented Ruben Östlunds THE SQUARE that competes for a Palme d’Or. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hanias was accompanied by the producer Habib Attia to present her feature film BEAUTY AND THE DOGS competing in the Un Certain Regard section.
A CIAMBRA by Jonas Carpignano is in Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) and is also the first feature to be supported by Martin Scorses’s new film fund for young directors. Jonas Carpignano presented the film together with his producer Jon Colon.
Director Niki Lindroth von Bahr attended with her producer Kalle Wettre to talk about her animated short film, THE BURDEN, which also competes in Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
In 2017, many films are shot in the Västra Götaland region such as Lars von Trier’s serial killer thriller The HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, featuring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman, among others in the key roles, being shot earlier this spring.
The shooting of Astrid Lindgren’s young life with Alba August in the lead role as the legendary author of children’s novels, started shooting in April and the life of famous singer songwriter Ted Gärdestad’s life is currently filming in the region, with Oscar nominated Hannes Holm at the helm.
