Statement of Pre-Selection Committee:

This year’s selection committee got an insight into the production of Norwegian short documentaries over the last year. We have seen variations in expressions presented to us, and we have discovered new talents we’re excited to see more from.

Despite each film being unique, we have noticed some common elements this year, the most obvious, in our opinion, being experimentation in visual styles and storytelling techniques. Classical dramaturgy is not a common characteristic in this year’s works.

Fresh and original ways to present well known events is some of what the audience can expect to see this year, along with several portraits of performers and artists.

Many of the submitted films seem to be made on a shoestring budget, but this does not mean they’re not well produced. Behind every film lies many hours, hard work, and a determination to describe life and the world we live in. We clearly see great potential in the filmmakers who have submitted their films to the festival this year, and we hope you as the audience will be enthused by what you are about to see.

It has also been a delight to watch the international films submitted. Poetic films opening doors to beautiful spaces in our minds, aesthetics giving us a sense of calm, and political films highlighting the injustice of our world. Films that mirror ourselves and show us what it means to be a human being.

What we’ve seen has strengthened our faith in film as a medium, it has inspired and moved us.

We hope you will enjoy!

The Pre-Selection Jury for short documentaries is:

Racha Helen Larsen is a creative producer and director. She has worked for Nordisk Film, Rubicon, and Strix as director, producer and line producer, and in 2018 she founded Yellow Log, a company focused on creative documentary filmmaking. Her debut feature documentary as producer, Where Man Returns, received the Amanda Award for best documentary in 2019. Racha has master degrees in Ethnographic Documentary from University of Manchester, Documentary filmmaking from Volda University College, and in Management from BI Norwegian Business School. In 2021 she co-founded and co-headed the documentary festival MIRAGE - Art of the Real Festival.

Halvor Nitteberg is a producer and director with degrees in Television and Documentary Directing from the Norwegian Film School and NTNU Trondheim. He is currently working as project manager for NRK, primarily focusing on documentary series. He has worked with tv-series, documentaries, music videos, and more since 1999, and his production company, Nitteberg Film & TV, has made two documentaries which were included in IDFA’s competition program.

Sverre Kvamme grew up in a small village in western Norway. He studied at The European Film College and Nordland College of Art and Film, and has a BA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art. With his personal approach to filmmaking, his works have moved between big topics like gender, childhood, sorrow, and death. In 2021, he released his debut feature documentary Young & Afraid.