By Annika Pham

According To The variety)  From Aug. 17-23, the charming coastal town of Haugesund, Norway, will showcase 76 films and 21 shorts in the newly renovated Edda film hub, offering two extra screening rooms, bringing the total halls to seven.

“We are looking forward to using the two new luxury halls and giving both the films and the audience a quality experience,” said festival honcho Tonje Hardersen.

Many of the high-quality features will screen in the festival’s main program, including several Cannes entries making their Norwegian premiere, such as “All We Imagine as Light,” “The Substance,” “Wild Diamond,” “The Girl with the Needle” and “When the Light Breaks.”

Among the four world premieres, three hail from Norway, a nation that boasts an enviable list of 2024 fest winners, such as Sundance’s “A New Kind of Wilderness,” “Handling the Undead,” Berlin’s “Sex” and Karlovy Vary’s “Loveable,” all lined up for Haugesund as well. “Once again, we have an exceptionally strong Norwegian slate,” says Hardersen, proudly citing the festival opener, “Quisling – The Final Days,” Erik Poppe’s third feature in a trilogy about dark forces threatening our democracy, after “The King’s Choice” and “Utøya, July 22.”

In it, Gard B. Eidsvold (“Beforeigners”) and Anders Danielsen Lie (“The Worst Person in the World”) star respectively as Norway’s infamous Nazi collaborator and traitor Vidkun Quisling and the priest Peder Olsen as they engage in a psychological battle while Quisling is waiting for his death sentence.

“Industry people here have questioned the number of local WW2 dramas, and underlined the risk of cannibalisation. But the market is hungry for those movies, and ‘Quisling – The Final Days’ is mostly a chamber drama that tries to explore why people can do horrible things. It’s hard not to think of today’s major conflicts,” Hardersen notes.

For Haugesund’s chief, the other Norwegian world premiere and festival closing pic “Enough” by newcomer Odd Einar Ingebretsen, shares with “Quisling” and the Karlovy Vary hit “Loveable,” the theme about strained human relations, although the three differ in style and production value. 

Meanwhile, the third Norwegian world premiere- Asgeir Helgestad’s documentary “A Call from the Wild,” which highlights Norway’s endangered nature, shows “the breadth and quality of Norwegian documentaries.”

“Quisling – The Final Days” is handled by REinvent International Sales,  “A Call from the Wild” by Albatros World Sales and “Loveable” by TrustNordisk, which closed several territories after the pic’s successful Karlovy Vary launch, including the Benelux and the Baltics, as reported in Variety.

Making its world premiere on Aug. 20 as the opening pic of Haugesund’s industry sidebar New Nordic Films, “Way Home” by the acclaimed Danish helmer Charlotte Sieling (“Margrete-Queen of the North”) should “leave the audience at the edge of their seats,” according to NNF honcho Line Halvorsen. The pic stars Nikolaj Lie Kaas as a father smuggled into Syria in a desperate search for his son. Levelk handles sales.

Other highlights of this year’s 52nd Haugesund fest include the new UK Focus sidebar with four features: the SXSW-selected doc “Grand Theft Hamlet,” Berlinale’s “Last Swim,” Cannes’s “September Days” and UK/Finnish co-pro “Sebastian.”

In its 8th collaboration with Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Haugesund will host the presentation of the Nordic Council Film Prize nominations, celebrating six outstanding films from the Nordic region. The 2024 nominees will be unveiled on Aug. 20.

The best new voices from the Nordics will also take center stage in the Next Nordic Generation program, with ten graduation works from top Nordic film schools due to vie for the best film.

Outstanding female voices making courageous artistic choices will be celebrated via the €30,000 ($32,600) Eurimages Audentia Award, which will be handed out on Aug. 22 to the best of 12 festival titles. “This Eurimages award travels to different festivals each year, so it will be a unique opportunity for us to host it,” Hardersen underscored.

Across all sections, star names will be on hand to promote their films, from helmers Erik Poppe, Lilja Ingolfsdottir (“Loveable”), Miia Tervo (“The Missile”) to actors Ine Marie Wilmann (“Enough”, “Troll”) and this year’s Walk of Fame recipients Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”, “Armand”) and Nils Ole Oftebro (“The Trip”, “Pørni”).

The festival will close on Aug. 23, with the annual Norwegian Amanda Awards to be handed out across 21 categories. This year’s competitors for best film take in Benjamin Ree’s documentary “Ibelin,” Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Sex” and Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s “The Arctic Convoy.”

As a meeting place for the Norwegian film industry, Haugesund will also stage several discussions held in the Norwegian language: the Film Politics Conference will focus on cinemagoing and tax regulations, the Cinema Seminar on the changing cinema audience and viewing habits, while the Youth Seminar will address Norwegian content in a global media landscape.