Meet The Pre-selection committees for 2024
Get to know the people who select this year’s competition programme from the hundreds of film submissions!
This year has seen another record number of film submissions to the Norwegian Short Film Festival, meaning the job of the pre-selection committees is tougher than ever.
As we speak, the committee members are working hard to watch all the submitted short films, short documentaries, and music videos. Next week they will present the movies that make the cut and are included in the competition programme at the 47th Norwegian Short Film Festival in June. We are excited to share those films with you in Grimstad.
Read on to get to know the members of the pre-selection committees:
NKD (Norwegian Shorts and Short Docs)
Marina D. Richter
Marina D. Richter is a Vienna-based film critic, script consultant, and writer. She’s been a foreign correspondent for film and art for the Serbian newspaper Politika since 2005, and is a regular film columnist for the Montenegrian film magazine Objektiv and writer for Asian Movie Pulse. Her film reviews and interviews have been published in Cineuropa, in Estonia’s cultural weekly Sirp, Serbia’s weekly Vreme, Austria’s Celluloid Magazine, EFA’s newsletters, VICE, and the Slovak Film.sk. She also contributes to the online daily Lupiga. Marina is a member of the Serbian Fipresci, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the European Film Academy.
Website: ubiquarian.net
Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas
Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas is an Emmy nominated, award-winning film producer, interactive producer, and editor of feature-length documentaries. She started her career as an editor and has 20 years of experience. In 2014 she founded her production company, Ten Thousand Images AS, based in Norway. Through TTI, she has produced and edited the award-winning documentary No Word for Worry (2014) and produced the critically acclaimed Nowhere to Hide (2016), which won over 20 international awards, including the main prize at IDFA and the Norwegian Amanda Award for Best Documentary.
More recently Munthe-Kaas co-produced Hidden Letters (2022), about the secret Chinese written language Nushu, developed by women. It was screened at many international festivals, and was shortlisted for the Oscars® in 2023.
Website: tenthousandimages.no
Egil Pedersen
Egil Pedersen holds a degree in film directing from The Norwegian Film School, has made numerous music videos and short films — including the award-winning Indigenous Police (screened at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2021), which has been the source of much engagement and debate.
Egil is making his feature film directorial and screenwriting debut later in 2024 with the Sámi drama Biru Unjárga.
Website: egilpedersen.com
Anita Svingen
Anita Svingen has been involved with the Norwegian Short Film Festival since 2006, and became the Festival Manager in 2012. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Television Studies from the University of Westminster in London, and has experience as producer and program manager at SBS Radio.
Anita has worked in Norwegian television production for over a decade, including for companies such as Rubicon and Dinamo. Anita has been involved in several organizations, for example as a member of the boards for both Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival and Norwegian Festivals.
NKD (International Shorts and Short Docs)
Sabina Jacobsson
Sabina Jacobsson is a filmmaker and visual artist, graduating from The Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim in 2000. She is an award-winning artist working in film, photography, drawing, and installation, and has had several solo exhibitions and screenings both in Norway and internationally. She also works with scenography for dance and theater performances and is a regular lecturer at Oslo fotokunstskole. Several of Jacobsson’s films have screened at the Norwegian Short Film Festival, most recently in 2021 with her documentary Ideas & Doubt and the animated Trash Mail.
Photo: Tina Holth-Jacobsson
Website: sabinajacobsson.com
Bard Ydén
Bard Ydén has worked with film festivals since 2003, and is editor and programmer for the Norwegian Short Film Festival since 2018. He is the Festival Director of Oslo/Fusion Int. Film Festival since 2007 (minus a one-year break), has consulted and curated for Norwegian and international film festivals, and has extensive jury experience. In 2017, he co-founded The Faroe Islands’ Int. Minority Film Festival, from 2018 to 2022 he was part of the organizing team for the European Film Market’s Horizons Start-Up program at Berlinale, and he is currently part of the New Dawn committee — an international production fund to support more diversity in film production.
Photo: Margarete Strandberg
Armita Keyani
Armita Keyani is a Norwegian filmmaker from Rælingen municipality with bachelor degrees in Film and Television studies from Wales, and Contemporary Art from Tromsø Art Academy, as well as a degree from Nordland School of Arts and Film. Her films are mostly dramedies set in unusual situations to explore larger themes. Her films have won several awards, including Vimeo’s 2019 Comedy of the Year award in 2019, has screened at several Academy Award® qualifying festivals, such as Tribeca, Palm Springs Int. ShortFest, and The Norwegian Short Film Festival.
Lars Daniel Krutzkoff Jacobsen
Lars Daniel Krutzkoff Jacobsen is a Norwegian filmmaker and a former film consultant at the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI). At NFI he worked with short films, but he was also one of the first consultants in their new development program for drama series and feature films called NEO. He has made two feature films and twelve short films. Famously credited for being the filmmaker who brought the “trash film” genre to Norway, he is also an active participant in the public debate.
Ingrid Liavaag
Ingrid Liavaag is a Norwegian director and actor, working within film, performance art and in hybrid forms. She has a Master’s Degree from Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and an exam from Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where she also studied scenography at Laboratory of Movement Study (L.E.M). Liavaag co-founded the international theater company LiLiRe, as well as the film collective Peggy Høy. Her short film The Director, co-directed with Linda Gathu, won the Norwegian Film Critics’ Association’s Award at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2022.
Julie Pichard
Julie Pichard has a degree in film editing and has worked extensively as an editor in France and Norway. She has also studied cultural project management and was coordinator for Institut Français at the French Embassy to Norway. Julie started as guest coordinator for the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2019 and took over as Festival Producer in 2020.
Jonas Brenna
Jonas Brenna is an experienced journalist with a backgound from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). As a producer and program director for video and film at Aftenposten media for the past eleven years, he is known for the reality series Sweatshop (2015) — which is still the only non-linear winner of Norway’s national Gullruten television award — as well as the short documentary, Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets (2016), which received an historic Oscar® shortlisting. He is overworked, picky and direct, but always very kind.
Samanta Sokolowski
Samanta Sokolowski is Argentine born and based in Berlin. Her passion for good stories, people and films, led her to the world of film festivals, where she has worked for over 20 years, currently including for the Berlin International Film Festival and Norway’s Oslo/Fusion Film Festival. She loves being moved and surprised by daring new ways of storytelling, and for the opportunity to showcase new talents.
Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani
Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani (no pronouns) is a German-Iranian non-binary curator, activist, musician and lecturer*researcher, focusing on intersectional*queer*feminism, social justice, anti-discriminatory practice and on queer topics in film and art. Nastaran has been a moderator at Berlinale since 2011, and held various positions at XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin since 2013 and moderated political panels and film talks all over Europe since 2010. Nastaran is currently in the process of founding an institute for anti-discriminatory consultation for film production.
Toril Simonsen
Toril Simonsen is a fixture in the world of short films. Until 2023, she was manager of International Relations for Short and Documentary Films at the Norwegian Film Institute. She was on the Board of Directors of the Norwegian Short Film Festival 1981–2003, and Festival Director 1989–1991. She co-founded Nordisk Panorama in 1990, and was co-director of its inaugural edition. She was also on the Board of Directors of Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2001–2003, and in 1983 she was co-founder of the Norwegian publication Z Film Quarterly.
Frank Mosvold
Frank Mosvold is a Norwegian filmmaker and creator of the animated TV-series Hubert (26 episodes) and Ella Bella Bingo (104 episodes). In 2020 he adapted the latter into a feature film, which he directed himself. Mosvold has also directed several award-winning short films, including the 2007 Terje Vigen Award-winning An Accidental Story. Mosvold holds an MFA degree in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
Photo: Tore Skaar
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen is a director, producer and screenwriter with degrees from the Czech Republic’s National Film School and London International Film School. She works in documentary and fiction, in short and long formats, and notably directed the feature film Turn Me On, Dammit (2011), winner of Best Screenplay at Tribeca and the Amanda Award for Best Theatrical Film, as well as the award-winning short docs The Clown Children (2005) and New York 81 (2022).
Meghna Rao
Meghna Rao is an independent producer and consultant based in New York. She previously oversaw film and television development at Pushkin Industries. Prior to Pushkin, she worked at Topic Studios where she was involved in a number of features, including The Mauritanian, Spencer, and Theater Camp. She began her career at Left/Right where she helped develop their first slate of scripted television projects.
Silje Poulsen Viki
Silje Poulsen Viki is producer and distributor at Indie Film. She has worked and programmed for several Norwegian festivals, such as HUMAN International Documentary Festival where she was program director from 2014 to 2021, as well as in different positions at the Norwegian Short Film Festival from 2011 to 2017. She has worked at Films from the South, the Norwegian South Film Fund, and Le Monde diplomatique, and held positions on the boards of cinemas and culture houses. Silje also has an MA in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation from Trinity College in Dublin.
Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad
Liv Joelle Barbosa Blad is a director and a scriptwriter. She garnered much acclaim for her series debut Nudes, which won the Gullruten Award for both best youth series and original music. Liv has directed eight short films and her most recent one, My Sister, won the Norwegian Amanda Award for best short film in 2017. Liv is co-owner of Barbosa Film, a company working to promote women filmmakers and diversity.
Photo: Caroline Roka
Shahrukh Kavousi
Shahrukh Kavousi is an Iran born director, educated at The Art Academy in Bergen and at Nordland School of Arts and Film. His film debut, the documentary The Twin Hairdressers from Baghdad (2004), received honorable mention at both the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad and the Norwegian Documentary Film Festival in Volda. He has directed several short films and featurettes, as well as producing for others, such as Camilla Figenschou’s feature film Tauba (2020). Kavousi runs the company Close Up Film AS, and is currently developing both a documentary and his first feature film.
NORSK MUSIKKVIDEO (MV)
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
Embla Karidotter is a Norwegian vocalist and songwriter, and frontperson for the Norwegian country group Embla and the Karidotters, which she founded in 2019. Embla was a drummer in the indie pop band Razika, and the band the Karidotters consists of members from the bands Razika, Slomosa, Honningbarna and Aiming for Enrike.
Embla and the Karidotters released the EP Howling in 2021, and in 2022 they released their debut album Hello, I’m Embla — an album for which they received the Spellemannprisen 2022 in the Country category.
We wish the members of the pre-juries the best of luck with their work!
Everyone who has submitted a film for consideration to the 47th Norwegian Short Film Festival will receive an answer from us via FilmFreeway on April 10, and the full competition programme will be published across our platforms on the same day.
