This year's New Horizons International Film festival will be dominated by the Norwegian cinematography. There will be a review of the newest Norwegian cinema complemented by Anja Breien retrospective, children's films and shorts - all part of a project entitled Norway Expanded. Furthermore, the first book on Norwegian cinema will be published and a big Polish-Norwegian co-production forum will be held during the Festival.
The film highlights will include Marius Holst's King of the Devil's Island starring Stellan Skarsgård - an epic story about the mutiny in a detention center for delinquent boys located on the Bastoy island. Another potential hit will be Sara Johnsen's Upperdog. It's a portrayal of young citizens of Oslo with Agnieszka Grochowska in the leading role. For that role, Grochowska was voted Norway's best actress in 2010.
The key part of the film section is an hommage to Anja Breien's works. The celebrated director will hold a masterclass and will attend numerous Q&A's with the audience.
A number of short films will also be screened and Kaveh Tehrani's film, 1994 will compete in the European Debut Shorts Competition. The organizers also planned special blocs of films for children. In addition to that, Mats Grorud will run a stop-frame animation workshop for children during the festival.
The fascinating Norwegian music will also feature at the festival as part of the "Norway Expanded" project. One of the most famous Norwegian bands, Jaga Jazzist will play in the Festival Club. The band connects classical instruments and electronica. Then, the phenomenal Susanne Sundfør will sing her pop-jazz compositions. Ambient music listeners will be spoiled by the performance of its prominent representative - Geir Jenssen, known as Biosphere. The noisy, rock trio Deathcrush, cult disco artist Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and avant-garde electronics groups Supersilent and Next Life In the Club will also perform.
The BWA gellery in Wrocław will, for the first time in Poland, exhibit the works of Ane Lan.
All the Women of the World Are in Me is a feminist exhibition from the male point of view. Ane Lan works in the field of performance, music and experimental film/video. He has participated in various international exhibitions, i.e. at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the 51st Venice Bienniale.
The festival will also publish the first book on Norwegian cinema ever to be printed in Poland and one of the first in the world, in fact. The editors are Jan Erik Holst and Paweł Urbanik. The articles discuss both the aesthetic and institutional evolution of Norwegian cinematography and focus on the most popular genres and topics, the tradition of film adaptations of books, the auteur policy, especially of Tancred Ibsen, Arne Skouen, Edith Carlmar, Liv Ullmann and Anja Breien. The book is concluded by a chapter on Polish-Norwegian co-productions.
Our partners on the Norway Expanded Programme are Norwegian Film Institute and Music Export Norway from Oslo.
Norway Expanded is supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.
