New Nordic Films, the Norwegian International Film Festival’s industry confab in Haugesund, has announced the program for its first ever French Focus, set up to foster partnerships and co-productions between France and the Nordic countries.
The event, due to run Aug. 25-28, is organised by New Nordic Films in partnership with the Institut Francais de Norvège, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, France’s National Center for Cinema (CNC) and promotional body Unifrance.
Headlining the French Focus is a pitching session on Aug. 26 at the Nordic Co-Production Market of four French films in development, of which two are produced by pedigreed producer Les Valseurs, a Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner this year for “Elephants in the Fog” and Un Certain Regard top prize winner in 2025 for “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.”
Produced by Les Valseurs co-founder Damien Megherdi, “Borderline” is the feature length spin-off of Yves Piat’s Oscar and César nominated short film “Nefta Football Club,” while “All the Softness in the World” is an ambitious animation project by Turkish artist Ayçe Kartal whose short film “Wicked Girl” was the first animation short to scoop the Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand in 2018.
Two other directorial debuts make the cut: the creative documentary “Boutès” by Jeanne Géli and Loïs Szymczak, produced by Womanray’s Marielle Tricoire, co-producer of Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” and “Temporary Lives” by Syrian-Norwegian filmmaker Wessam Hachicho, produced by Respiro Productions (“In the Nguyen Kitchen”).
Besides the four-title pitch, the French Focus will include a panel on co-production opportunities between France and the five Nordic countries, and a case study on the anticipated “Ibelin” by Norwegian-born Morten Tyldum, mostly famed for the Oscar-winning “The Imitation Game.” The biopic about online gamer Mats Steen – starring Charlie Plummer, Stephen Graham, Toni Collette, and Bill Nighy – is currently in production for France’s Vendôme Pictures, Pathé, and Norway’s Neby-Tyldum AS.
“I am incredibly happy that we are finally able to have a French focus in Haugesund,” said Gyda Velvin Myklebust, head of New Nordic Films. “French cinema is well-known internationally for high artistic quality, and we in the Nordic region have also recently made a strong mark internationally,” she added, referring to “Sentimental Value”’s Oscar win for Best International Feature, the first ever for Norway. “France and the Nordics have highly talented and ambitious filmmakers, and we believe our French focus will give wind to a French-Nordic wave of co-productions and creative collaborations between our countries.”
For Kjersti Mo, CEO at the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) the French Focus reflects “a growing recognition that European film depends on stronger international collaboration.”
“France has one of Europe’s strongest film cultures and most developed production ecosystems, while the Nordic countries bring distinctive stories, strong creative talent and considerable international experience,” Mo added. “These different strengths are precisely what can make the partnerships valuable,” said the NFI chief, who also underscored that “international collaboration is a central priority” in the institute’s new strategy.
Speaking to Variety, Michel Plazanet, CNC director of international affairs, pointed out that “the Nordic countries, which traditionally co-produce extensively among themselves, are now “seeking additional partners, particularly in France, as this opens up numerous opportunities: access to funding (such as “Aide aux Cinémas du Monde,” regional co-production funds, Arte, and SOFICA), distribution advantages (French sales agents have an excellent reputation, and French co-productions gain easier access to the Cannes and Annecy festivals), and better access to the French theatrical market, the largest in Europe, especially for arthouse cinema.”
Conversely the Nordics offer clear advantages for French producers, Plazanet said, as the region boasts “robust institutions, substantial and diverse public and private funding, and reliable professionals accustomed to international co-production.”
Aide au Cinéma du Monde
So far 20 Nordic projects have received backing from the ACM including three Cannes entries from Joachim Trier (“Sentimental Value,” “The Worst Person in the World,” “Louder than Bombs”), and two from Tarik Saleh (“Eagles of the Republic,” Boys from Heaven”).
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are the most active [co-production] countries, but Iceland also performs very well, given its very small population,” Plazanet said.
Among the French Focus attendees, Julie Billy, founder of Paris-based June Films, was just granted ACM support for the Icelandic project in production “A Favour” by Grímur Hákonarson (“Rams”), and is developing a project with Norway’s Eye Eye Pictures (“Fjord,” “Sentimental Value”). “The French Focus comes at exactly the right moment,” said the producer, also interested in creators – notably from the Sámi community, “whose perspectives are unique and increasingly important on the international scene.”
“I would love to see Norway as a minority co-producer in more French productions, and of course the other way around,” added Eye Eye Pictures co-founder Andrea Berendsen Ottmar who also hopes the French Focus will “inspire, so that we can help each other to think outside the box in terms of how we structure and finance our projects. Independent producers all over Europe need to stand together and support each other, and forums like this are very valuable in that sense,” she observed.
As noted by Plazanet, the French Focus plays within a series of French/Nordic industry events, multiplied in the last two years, that peaked in 2025 with the Visions Nordiques Festival in Paris. Next on the CNC’s top agenda is “an institutional alignment on key European issues, notably the transposition of the AVMS Directive and platform obligations.”
The Norwegian International Film festival, running Aug. 22-28, will platform eight French films in its section French Touch.
Drilling down on the four French projects lined-up for the Nordic Co-Production Market
“Bordeline” (“Sur la ligne,” Yves Piat)
Produced by Daniel Megherbi, Les Valseurs
Feature debut from the director of the 2020 Oscar-nominated short film “Neftah Football Club who has sketched out ideas from his short, together with writer Alaa Eddine Aljem (“The Unknown Saint”). The story turns Hishem, on a customs officer on the Algerian-Tunisian border, who encounters Tesla, a donkey lost in the desert with headphones over his ears, with a bag of cocaine on his back.
Producer Megherbi who co-produced with the Nordics Nepalese pic “Elephants in the Fog,” a Cannes’ Jury Prize winner, believes “Bordeline”’s deadpan, absurd humor, “somewhere between Elia Suleiman and the Coen brothers,” will resonate well with Nordic partners and the general audience. Public backers on board include the CNC, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and ICEC in Spain via Spanish co-producers Sumendi and BTeam Pictures. Filming is pencilled for April-May 2027.
“All the Softness in the World” (“Toute la douceur du monde,” Ayçe Kartal)
Produced by Damien Megherbi, Les Valseurs
Turkish animation filmmaker Ayçe Kartal and Megherbi reunite on the helmer’s feature length debut after his multi-awarded short film “Wicked Girls,” an Annecy Jury Prize) winner. Set in 1950, the story follows the young Levon who has grown up posing as a girl, to be protected from an ancient family vendetta. In his search for his true identity, Levon lands in Paris in the world of Haute Couture where he begins to recover a sense of self through creativity.
“I want to explore, through [Levon] an alternative history of fashion, one rooted in survival, not spectacle,” said Kartal in a statement. “At Haugesund, we hope to find a Nordic co-producer who understands what we’re trying to achieve with this project. It’s an ambitious, innovative piece of adult animation, and we want a partner who’s genuinely excited by that,” said Megherbi who’s secured development support from the CNC and Hauts-de-France region.
“Boutès” (Jeanne Géli, Loïs Szymczak)
Produced by Marieke Tricoire, Womanray
A liife-affirming documentary in which forensic pathologist Jeanne Géli turns filmmaker to capture the frailty and beauty of life, as her partner Loic Szymczak, an Olympic diver and visual artist, suddenly fights for his own life, upended by a malignant brain tumor. Together they move towards one act of faith-a performative dive in the heart of Paris.
“This film is, above all, a love story. We are making it to transform the reality of illness into poetic material,” said the co-directors.
Womanray founder Tricoire, who bridges luxury brands with film and served as co-producer on Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Lion winner “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother,” said she signed up for New Nordic Films when she found out that the founder of the extreme sport Døds diving (Death diving) was born in Norway. The project co-produced with Hutong in France, is currently shooting, with a delivery pencilled for 2028. “Temporary Lives”
Produced by Amélie Quéret, Respiro Productions
Wessam Hachicho, a graduate from Oslo’s Westerdals film school and a former cinematographer in Syria, draws from her own uprooting experience to tell the story of a Syrian teenager refugee in Oslo and his estranged father as they seek asylum in Norway. “Beneath the [film’s] political context lies an intimate story about unresolved trauma, family bonds and the sacrifices parents and children make for one another,” said Hachicho. The film also asks how institutions shape individual lives, as every decision the characters make becomes a negotiation between survival, dignity, and hope.”
Queret, who met the rising filmmaker at the Less is More Lab, said she was blown away by Hachicho’s script and “clear artistic identity.” In Haugesund, she will be looking for a Norwegian co-producer and access to Nordic funds. Filming is due to start in 2027.