Tonje Hardersen: Last News

Annika Pham Legendary actor-director-writer Liv Ullmann, the first Norwegian to receive an Honorary Oscar, is being celebrated on home turf, as part of the golden jubilee of Haugesund’s Norwegian Film Festival, for which she is honorary president.The festival which runs Aug. 20-26, is also screening her 2000 Palme d’or entry “Faithless,” penned by Ingmar Bergman, who made her a household name, and Erik Poppe’s “The Emigrants,” a modern version of Jan Troell’s classic which earned her an Oscar nomination in 1973.The luminary stage and screen actor-director, featured in Viaplay’s upcoming English-language three-part series “Liv Ullmann – The Road Less Travelled,” spoke to Variety ahead of the Liv Ullmann symposium and tribute in Haugesund on Aug. 22.

Annika Pham For its 50th edition unspooling Aug. 20-26, Norway’s top film event, the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, will be treating its 400-plus international guests and local audiences with a beefed-up onsite program of 72 feature length films and 19 shorts.“We’ve had more films to choose from than ever before, “says festival honcho Tonje Hardersen about her non-competitive program, put together in close collaboration with local distributors and exhibitors.

Annika Pham After a muted 2020 due to COVID-19, the Norwegian International Film Festival in the picturesque coastal town of Haugesund will be back in full force over Aug. 21-27, with attendance expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, both for the on-site festival and parallel hybrid confab New Nordic Films, according to festival director Tonje Hardersen.“The pandemic is still impacting Haugesund, forcing us to apply social distancing measures, notably in cinemas – with a maximum of 400 spectators per screen – but last year’s event gave us confidence,” she said.