It’s been an honor for the preliminary jury to be involved in deciding this year’s music video selection for The Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad. This year we have seen a record number of submissions in this category, which brings us great joy to witness.
The entries made us consider and discuss what a music video really is and what it should be:
A short film that visualizes music, but how is this best executed?
The genre is constantly being explored and challenged, while still keeping the music video’s classic form and content intact.
This year’s entries gave us the full range in music genres, film language and budget. We have selected what we think was the best across all of this. We have been entertained and engaged by the music videos created in 2023. We are pleased to see that the genre is constantly evolving, and we want to thank everyone involved in creating these works.
It has been particularly inspiring to see that no matter how small a budget you have (or don’t have), it is possible to make an impressive music video, as long as you have big ambitions and power of execution. We look forward to seeing future short films from these directors!
We hope you will be as excited as we are by how good a music video can be: Whether it’s the beautiful cinematography, the inventive execution, the hilarious script, the political message or the captivating interaction between music and image.
Embla Karidotter & Eivind Landsvik
Eivind Landsvik is a Norwegian writer and director. He started his career making music videos for local artists, focusing on storytelling combined with a sensitive visual language. He soon made his way into fiction and a number of short films. Eivind has developed a personal take on coming-of-age stories that often revolve around identity and loneliness.
His short film Sofia, Last Summer won the Norwegian Film Critics’ Award at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2021. His latest short film, Tits, was in competition for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and has since traveled to festivals around the world. Eivind is currently developing his first feature film, Low Expectations.
Embla Karidotter played drums in Razika from 2006 to 2019. When the band dissolved, she started her own project: Embla and the Karidotters, who won the Spellemann award in country music for their debut album “Hello, I’m Embla”. She has directed music videos for both bands, which have screened at Bergen Int. Film Festival and the Norwegian Short Film Festival. Embla works at Cinemateket in Bergen and loves (short)film.
The Norwegian Short Film Festival / kortfilm@kortfilmfestivalen.no
Kortfilmfestivalen i Grimstad
kortfilm@kortfilmfestivalen.no