Opening on today with a record number of 325 participants, New Nordic Films - the three-day market section of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund - will this year present 23 recent Nordic features and 11 works-in-progress, adding 18 projectsat the Nordic Co-Production Forum.
'The showcase is intended support Nordic films in finding a platform in Europe and the world, whether it be in getting selected for a festival, picked up by a distributor or included in the catalogue of an international sales agent,'said head of New Nordic Films, Gyda Velvin Myklebust.

'Whereas focus used to be on finished product, the works-in-progress and the projects have become equally interesting to the attendants,' added Myklebust, who observed that the number of buyers had increased to 60. Among the first-timers are The Weinstein Company.

Launched by Norwegian director Erik Poppe's Troubled Water, which closes the festival's main programme, New Nordic Films will show four films from Denmark, five from Finland, three from Iceland, seven from Norway and four from Sweden at the Edda multiplex.

Several entries have not yet been theatrically released on home turf, including another two local titles, Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen'sThe Last Joint Venture and Eva Sørhaug's Cold Lunch, Finnish director Aku Louhimies' Tears of April and Swedish director Ruben Östlund's Involuntary.
110 film professionals have signed for the Nordic Co-Production Forum, which opens its third edition tomorrow, with 18 projects on the agenda - all films to be packaged with participation from Germany, Canada and the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

'After last year's forum we asked the companies which were represented about their outcome of the market. Half of them said they had attached one or more new partners to their projects; a third had left with cash from a financing fund or institution,' Myklebust noted.

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