Joachim Trier’s next feature film will see him reunite with The Worst Person In The World‘s co-writer Eskil Vogt, with Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar of Eye Eye Pictures set to produce.
The feature, as yet untitled, has received backing from the Norwegian Film Institute worth $1.9m (a record high for the public funder) as part of its total budget of $7.8m.
Trier’s sixth feature – all previous features have also been co-written with Vogt – is described as “an ambitious yet playful family drama set in Oslo. The film is an intimate, funny, and moving film about memory, family, and how we must rewrite our stories about ourselves to survive. Vogt and Trier were Oscar nominated in 2022 for their
Worst Person original screenplay; the film won best actress for Renate Reinsve at Cannes 2021.Ottmar was one of the producers of
Worst Person while at Oslo Pictures; Ekerhovd produced Vogt as a director with The Innocents (also a Cannes 2021 selection).Mer Film also received NFI backing for Itonje Soimer Guttormsen’s
Butterfly, a comedy drama about two sisters. This new feature from the Gritt director was presented at the 2023 Berlinale Co-Production Market. NFI contributes $1.3m to the $4.1m budget of the film. Butterfly will shoot in 2024 in Gran Canaria, Norway and Germany.Mer Film’s past credits include
The Innocents, War Sailor and What Will People Say.Other projects backed in this round of funding from the NFI include the Christmas adventure story
Stargate, written and directed by Ida Sagmo Tvedte, based on the novel by Ingvild Rishoi. Hege Hauf Haftum and Yngve Sether produce for Motlys (Beware Of Children Ninjababy). The story is about a father who loses a job as a christmas tree seller, and spends the nights drinking in the Stargate Pub, while his daughters aged 10 and 16 are left to fend on their own. The NFI contributes $1.3m to the film’s budget, which is $2.6m.
