Eight new features from newcomers and experienced filmmakers like Petter Naess, Erik Skjoldbjaerg and Paal Sletaune have been awarded funding from the Norwegian Film Fund.

Elsk Meg I Morgen (literally Love Me Tomorrow) is the third and final instalment in the successful trilogy about Elling, and it will be directed by Petter Naess, who also made the original Oscar-nominated film.

Popular actors Per Christian Ellefsen and Sven Nordin reprise their roles, and the NOK15m film is again produced by Dag Alveberg for Maipo Film & TV. The Fund gave NOK7m in support.

Naess recently directed the popular youth film Just Bea and is presently shooting Mozart & The Whale starring Josh Hartnett in the US.

Another Norwegian filmmaker returning home for his next film, after making Prozac Nation in the US, is Erik Skjoldbjaerg.

His updated version of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 classic play An Enemy Of The People has been co-written by his Insomnia-collaborator Nikolaj Frobenius and will be produced by Nordisk Film Production's Aage Aaberge. The Fund backed the NOK18m project with NOK9m.

Nordisk Film is also behind the new family film Friends For Life (Venner For Livet) from Arne Lindtner Naess (The Young Olsen Gang). Producer Ellen Jacobsen produces the NOK14m film with NOK7m backing from the Film Fund.

Writer-director Paal Sletaune, who won international acclaim with Junk Mail in Cannes in 1997, makes a return to features with the psychological thriller Neighbors (Naboer).

Spillefilmkompaniet 4 ' 's Turid Oeversveen produces the NOK15.2m project with NOK8m coming from the Film Fund.

Writer-director Vibeke Idsoe (Karlsson On The Roof) makes her first adult film with the romantic comedy 37 ' . The film is produced by Filmkameratene AS's veteran John M. Jacobsen (The Woman Of My Life) on a NOK15.1m budget of which the Fund provides NOK7m.

The Fund also backed Graatass, an animated feature based on a children's TV-series, and Arne B. Rostad's feature documentary Odin's Eye - A Film About Erik Bye produced by Paradox Production, as well as the Swedish co-production of Lisa Ohlin's Sex, Hope And Love produced by Sweden's Illusion Film AB in collaboration with Egil Oedegaard's Filmhuset Produksjoner AS.

Meanwhile, two local authors, Torun Lian and Nikolaj Frobenius (co-writer of An Enemy Of The People) are to become film commissioners at the Norwegian Film Fund. Here they will be in charge of selecting which films will get backing from the Fund. While Lian takes over from Harry Guttormsen in September, Frobenius replaces Karin Julsrud in January 2005.

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