Stop-motion, young stand-up and coming of old age

Calendar Girls. Photo: Love Martinsen

In Comedy Queen, young Sasha wants to be a stand-up comedian. Documentary Calendar Girls follows Florida’s most dedicated dance team for women over 60. Bullets is a drama-thriller in the style of French ‘cinema de banlieue’, and sisters Anna and Maria von Hausswolff collaborate in Resorts. Read all about the total of 41 projects that have recently received funding.

Sanna Lenken (My Skinny Sister, Crystal Bear at the Berlinale) directs Comedy Queen in which 12-year-old Sasha dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. She wants to make people laugh, especially her dad who has been crying since her mother passed away. In secret, she writes a list of everything she has to do to survive the grief: shave her head, stop reading books, and above all become a Comedy Queen. The film is based on Jenny Jägerfeld’s award-winning book, with screenplay by Linn Gottfridsson (Beartown and the Arne Dahl crime series).

In Swedish-Italian stop-motion co-production The Store (working title) / Butiken by Hanna Sköld, homeless women steal food from a container behind a store. At the same time the employees fight for the shop and to live their own lives. A conflict arises. Sköld has previously directed festival favourite Granny’s Dancing on the Table.

Bullets, written and directed by Peter Pontikis, is a highly topical drama-thriller that reflects our times, and in the style of French ‘cinema de banlieue’ films it depicts the struggle of being a child in a world that doesn’t allow it. The film is planned to shoot in northern Stockholm this summer.

In Exodus, the feature film directorial debut for Abbe Hassan, two worlds collide when Sam, a professional smuggler, reluctantly rescues Amal, aged 12, whose family has been split up in a war-torn Syria. An unexpected friendship emerges, when Amal through her imagination and playfulness also rescues Sam, and they forge a relationship that affects their lives forever.

Documentaries include Danish-Swedish Resorts by Mette Carla Albrechtsen, about dreams of living the good life in the sun. The film follows six tourists who have decided never to return from their holiday in Playa del Inglés. Music by Anna von Hausswolff and cinematography by her sister Maria von Hausswolff. Swedish co-producers are Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck. The duo, previously in competition at Sundance and Berlin, also directs feature-length doc Broadcast. It's an observational and philosophical film about how we humans visually perceive the world and how we choose to portray it. Whose perspective do we see? What interests are behind them? And what do these images do to our perception of the world?

Documentary Calendar Girls by Maria Loohufvud and Love Martinsen is a coming-of-old-age story about Florida’s most dedicated dance team for women over 60 – the Calendar Girls. A dance documentary that shakes up the outdated image of “the old lady” as they perform in churches and in nursing homes, dressed as zombies and unicorns.

Ultras by Ragnhild Ekner is a documentary about the subculture of soccer fans, where the group is everything and the individual nothing. It’s about solidarity, loyalty and the creation of meaning. Using images from the Ultras’ own cell phones, we get close to life on the grandstand.

The documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World (Världens vackraste pojke) by Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri world premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and competed at CPH:DOX. The film follows the life story of Björn Andrésen after appearing in Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice 50 years ago.

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