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New Europe Film Sales has sold US rights to Ulaa Salim’s sci-fi romance Eternal to Dark Star Pictures and has boarded Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s next feature Hot Spot.

Eternal recently world premiered in the Big Screen Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Dark Star is planning a theatrical release in the US.

The film centres on an obsessive, young climate change scientist who leaves behind his girlfriend to participate in a multi-year research mission exploring a fissure on the ocean floor that threatens the world. Years later, during his mission, he experiences a vision of what his life...

Exclusive: New Europe Film Sales has unveiled fresh deals for Danish director Ulaa Salim’s sci-fi drama Eternal.

The film has sold to France (Kmbo Films), Benelux (Cineart), Poland (Galapagos), ex-Yugoslavia (Five Stars) and Hungary (Mozinet).

Eternal is Ulaa Salim’s second film after his 2019 provocative, conspiracy thriller debut Sons Of Denmark.

Simon Sears stars as a scientist who ditches his relationship with an aspiring singer to join a mission exploring a dangerous climate change phenomenon linked to a mysterious fracture on the ocean floor.

Years later, during the mission, he experiences a vision of what his life could have been like if he made a different choice, and his new obsession becomes to get his old life and love back.

Nanna Øland Fabricius, Magnus Krepper, Halldóra Geirhardsdóttir, Zaki Youssef and Morten Holst round out the cast.

The feature reunites Salim with Sons Of Denmark producer Daniel Mühlendorph at Hyæne Film,...

The buzzy project was showcased at Goteborg Work in Progress.

New Europe Film Sales is kicking off sales at the European Film Market on Ulaa Salim’s anticipated Eternal, by closing the first deal with Plaion for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The sci-fi love story is now in post and is stirring a lot of buzz after its Goteborg Work in Progress presentation earlier this month. It is about a scientist researching a mysterious fracture on the ocean floor who reunites with a past love. The cast includes Simon Sears, Nanna Øland Fabricius, Magnus Krepper, Halldóra Geirhardsdóttir, Zaki Youssef and Morten Holst.

The award comes with 38,000, making it one of the world’s largest film prizes.

Goteborg’s lucrative Dragon Award for best Nordic film has gone to Danish director Malou Reymann’s second feature Unruly.

The drama premiered at Toronto and had its Swedish premiere at Goteborg. TrustNordisk handles sales and the Danish cinema release is planned for spring 2023.

Reymann previously directed Rotterdam Big Screen winner A Perfectly Normal Family.

Unruly is about the Sprogø Women’s Institution in the 1930s, when “morally feeble” girls and women were sent to the island to become more compliant. The story focuses on Maren,...

Picture Tree International has acquired international rights to Danish director Lisa Jespersen’s feature debut, the comedy drama “Persona Non Grata” (Hvor Kragerne Vender), and will introduce the film to buyers at the upcoming Nordic Film Market, after its launch in Nordic Competition during the online edition of Goteborg Film Festival this week. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.

The film follows Laura who has distanced herself from her family in the countryside, and moved to Copenhagen to live the bohemian lifestyle as a writer. When she is forced to return home to attend her brother’s wedding, she discovers that he’s about to marry her worst childhood enemy Catrine. Laura realizes that Catrine has taken over her place in the family and is now ready to do anything to get it back.

Jespersen studied film directing at the National Film School of Denmark, and has...

Scandi major TrustNordisk will handle world sales on The Marco Effect, which is based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s bestselling crime-thriller novel of the same name.

Danish filmmaker Martin Zandvliet, whose credits include the Oscar-nominated war pic Land Of Mine, is helming the project, which is budgeted at $8.1m (€7.4m) and began shooting this week.

Written by Anders F. August (A Fortunate Man) with co-writer Thomas Porsager, the movie stars Ulrich Thomsen (The New Pope), Zaki Youssef (Sons Of Denmark), and Sofie Torp (Wildland) in the story of a homeless boy who is arrested at the Danish boarder control for possession of a missing public servant’s passport.

A police inspector is tasked with finding the connection, but the case contains several suspicious elements: The public servant was accused of pedophilia shortly before he disappeared, and his case was closed unusually quickly. The silent, traumatized Marco refuses to talk to them,...

Since “Sons of Denmark’s” world bow at Rotterdam in 2019, Danish writer/director Ulaa Salim and producer Daniel Mühlendorph have enjoyed invites to 50 world festivals, and won nine awards – including best director at Seattle – and distribution in eight territories, negotiated by New Europe Film Sales. Those take in China (Huanxi Films), the U.K./Ireland (Eureka), Benelux (Windmill), Germany (Koch Media), Filmin (Spain), Programestore (France), Windmill (Benelux), Ale Kino (Poland) and Arthouse Traffic (Ukraine).

The partners in the fledging Danish outfit Hyæne Film are at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market with two titles from recent Danish Film School graduates: Lisa Jespersen’s “Persona non Grata” (“Hvor kragerne vender”) pitched at the work in progress session, and Christian Bengtson’s “Chrysanthemum,” showcased within the Discovery section.

For her debut feature, Jespersen has attracted heavyweight DoP and Lars von Trier’s regular cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro (“Melancholia”), and an ensemble cast of...

Ulaa Salim's Sons of Denmark is showing January 24 –February 22, 2020 on Mubi as part of the series Direct from Rotterdam.What causes a man to become extreme? That was one of the main questions I asked my self with this film. I saw a world that was on the edge of a major change. Everybody was closing in on each other and from the unknown. I wanted to tell a story about the next, perhaps inevitable, step in our society. What happens when normalization of extreme voices take place and these voices gain power and authority? What happens when the hard rhetoric is no longer just words, but is put into action?I started writing the script for Sons of Denmark six years before actually getting the opportunity to shoot it. I was still in film school and had the urge to speak up about the extreme voices and the...

Other titles set for release include ‘Black Christmas’, ‘The Kingmaker’ and ‘Pink Wall’.

Action sequel Jumanji: The Next Level and Blumhouse horror Black Christmas lead this weekend’s releases at the UK box office, which may see Frozen II fall from the top slot.

Released through Sony, Jumanji: The Next Level reunites stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black with director Jake Kasdan.

Together, they scored a box office hit with Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle in December 2017, which opened with £8.15m (including £4.11m in previews) and went on to gross £38.5m.

The sequel sees four young...

Other winners include ’Ghost Tropic’, ‘The Fourth Wall’ and ’A Certain Kind of Silence’.

Immigrant drama I Am No Longer Here, from Mexican director Fernando Frias, has won the Golden Pyramid for best film at the 41st Cairo International Film Festival.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Frias’ timely drama centres on a Mexican teenager forced to move to the Us after getting on the wrong side of a drugs cartel. Its young star, Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino, was feted with best actor.

Also in the international competition, Belgian director Bas Devos won the Silver Pyramid for urban night-time odyssey tale Ghost Tropic.

Films will be available to stream for free in 45 European countries.

Danish political thriller Sons of Denmark and Serbian stolen child drama Stiches are among the ten European features due to be showcased in the fourth edition of the competitive Artekino Festival, running December 1 to 31, its organisers have announced.

The online festival - which is a joint venture between Franco-German broadcaster Arte and Paris-based digital platform Festival Scope – will be available for free in 45 countries across Europe.

Under the initiative, aimed at promoting the circulation of European films that have not found wide theatrical distribution - 5,000 virtual seats are made...

50,000 tickets are up for grabs for ten art house films available digitally, in ten languages and in 45 countries across Europe, from 1 December. The ArteKino Festival, launched in 2016 by Arte and Festival Scope with the support of Europe Créative in order to showcase and promote European arthouse cinema, is back for its 4th edition, set to take place from Sunday 1 to Tuesday 31 December. On the menu are ten features (helmed by five female and five male directors), including seven feature debuts, which will be available online, free of charge with a total of 50,000 tickets available, to be requested via artekinofestival.com and the ArteKino app. The line-up is accessible in 45 countries and in ten languages.Standing out from the programme is the explosive politico-familial thriller Sons of Denmark by Ulaa Salim...

Nordisk Film & TV Fond has announced three features, two series and a documentary set to receive $1.4m in financing, as well as distribution, dubbing and cultural initiative support recipients. Doing so, it highlights some of the key titles moving forward in the Nordic region.

Already backed by the Danish Film Institute’s largest ever grant of $2.4m, another $8.6m from Danish broadcaster TV2 and Sf Studios, Ole Bornedal’s WWII drama “Shadows in My Eyes” will receive a further $333,000 from the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, cementing it as one of the country’s most ambitious features to date.

In 1945, the Royal Air Force, intending to take out a Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, mistakenly bombed a French school, killing several children and nuns. “Shadows in My Eyes” will focus on the contrast of innocence versus machines and the children whose lives were irrevocably changed through the tragic error.

Jonas Allen,...

The Niff Extended programme of the Swiss festival is attracting high-level international guests.

Nifff Extended, the section of Swiss festival Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) probing the future of cinema, launches today with a wide-ranging programme exploring how games, transmedia and VFX are helping to change storytelling in feature filmmaking.

The programme is becoming the main industry focus of the festival, attracting high-level guests and featuring premieres and cutting- edge debates.

“The Neuchâtel festival has the name ‘film festival’ because it is a historical brand but we really have broadened our vision of what we show and what we discuss,...

The Niff Extended programme of the Swiss festival is attracting high-level international guests.

Nifff Extended, the section of Swiss festival Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) probing the future of cinema, launches today with a wide-ranging programme exploring how games, transmedia and VFX are helping to change storytelling in feature filmmaking.

The programme is becoming the main industry focus of the festival, attracting high-level guests and featuring premieres and cutting- edge debates.

“The Neuchâtel festival has the name ‘film festival’ because it is a historical brand but we really have broadened our vision of what we show and what we discuss,...

The Niff Extended programme of the Swiss festival is attracting high-level international guests.

Niff Extended, the section of Swiss festival Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival probing the future of cinema, launches today with a wide-ranging programme exploring how games, transmedia and VFX are helping to change storytelling in feature filmmaking.

The programme is ecoming the main industry focus of the festival, attracting high- level guests and featuring premieres and cutting- edge debates.

“The Neuchâtel festival has the name ‘film festival’ because it is a historical brand but we really have broadened our vision of what we show and what we discuss,...

Danish director Ulaa Salim talks to Variety about his provocative debut feature, thriller “Sons Of Denmark,” which made a strong showing in Rotterdam’s Tiger competition and just screened at Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film is set in 2025, and unfolds in a Denmark where an ultra-nationalist politician, Martin Nordahl, is poised to assume the premiership, one year after an Islamic terror attack on the Copenhagen Metro. Nordahl’s extreme rhetoric and fear mongering in regard to the country’s Muslim citizens and immigrants goads the far-right organization Sons of Denmark into committing hate crimes. Meanwhile, some of the country’s Arabic minority make plans to resist.

Salim, a recent graduate of the Danish National Film School, was born in Denmark to Iraqi-émigré parents. He and producer Daniel Mühlendorph, a film school classmate, established their own company Hyæne Film, and this is their first feature production.

I saw that your...

The Seattle Film Festival wrapped Sunday with top Golden Space Needle audience awards going to “Tel Aviv on Fire” for best film and “We Are the Radical Monarchs” for best documentary.

Ulaa Salim won best director for “Sons of Denmark,” while Damla Sonmez won best actress for “Sibel” and Julius Weckauf won best actor for “All About Me.” Best short film went to “Stepdaddy.”

Juried award winners included “House of Hummingbird” for the official competition, “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia” for New Directors; “The Awakening of the Ants” for the Ibero-American Competition, “International Falls” for the New American Cinema competition and “Q Ball” for documentary.

The largest festival in the United States, it featured more than 400 films from 86 countries including 12 feature premieres.

“It’s been an incredible 25 days full of important stories from around the world. We’re incredibly proud to showcase women in comedy, from jump starting the...

Martin Zandvliet to direct Ulrich Thomsen and Zaki Youssef in fresh adaptation of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels.

After a hugely successful run of four films produced by Zentropa, the Department Q crime thriller series is moving to Nordisk Film.

Director Martin Zandvliet and producer Mikael Rieks – both Oscar nominated for Land Of Mine – reunite on the project after also working together on Applause and A Funny Man.

Ulrich Thomsen and Zaki Youssef are confirmed to star in The Marco Effect as Carl Mørck and Assad; they take over from the previous pairing of Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares in the first four films,...

Nordisk Film and Land of Mine director Martin Zandvliet have set the cast for upcoming Scandi detective thriller The Marco Effect.

Ulrich Thomsen (In a Better World) and Zaki Youssef (Sons of Denmark) will star in the feature, based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s fifth novel in the bestselling Department Q series. Nordisk Film Production’s Mikael Rieks is producer.

In the Danish-language crime thriller, Thomsen will play detective Carl Mørck and Youssef will portray his assistant Assad. The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Marco who is on the run and who also happens to be the key to uncovering a story of multinational corruption within government funds earmarked for development aid in Africa.

The adaptation is the first in a series of six Department Q films planned by Nordisk Film in co-production with Peter Nadermann’s Nadcon Film from Germany. Script is from Anders August (A Fortunate Man) and newcomer Thomas Porsager.

Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has picked up world sales rights for the upcoming drama “Fools,” by Berlinale Silver Bear winner Tomasz Wasilewski (“United States of Love”), produced by Ewa Puszczynska, the producer behind Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winner “Ida” and nominee “Cold War.”

Leading Polish actors Dorota Kolak and Lukasz Simlat star in a film about the difficult relationship between a mother and son, and how their choices have dramatic consequences.

Puszczynska is producing for her company Extreme Emotions, in co-production with Ada Solomon at Romania’s Hi-Film and Jamila Wenske of Germany’s One Two Films, and in association with Nem Corp. Romanian DoP Oleg Mutu returns after his previous collaboration with Wasilewski on “United States of Love,” which New Europe sold to over 30 territories.

New Europe’s Cannes line-up includes the Critics’ Week selection “A White, White Day,” by Hlynur Palmason, which sold...

The Danish film industry is on a roll this year with berths secured at major festivals besides the Berlinale where Lone Scherfig’s “The Kindness of Strangers” landed the opening slot, just as Susanne Bier’s Sandra Bullock starrer “Bird Box” is breaking records on Netflix and first-timer Gustav Möller’s “The Guilty” made the foreign-language Oscar shortlist.

It’s a particularly good time because different types of local productions are performing well both at home, where the domestic share of total admissions was a strong 29% in 2018, and in the international arena, which is seeing a new generation of Danish directors coming to the fore.

Last year there were 26 homegrown titles released in Denmark that sold 3.8 million tickets total, up from 2.5 million tickets in 2017, when the national market share was 20%.

Aside from new works by known names such as Christoffer Boe, whose high-profile crimer “The Purity of Vengeance” topped the 2018 chart,...

Goteborg — The 20th Nordic Film Market, held parallel to the Göteborg Film Festival, closed Sunday after three days of screenings and pitchings of 48 Nordic films and projects. Following, five key takeaways or trends:

Standout Nordic Brand Quality

An excellent crop, better than 2018, with a large diversity of content, catering to arthouse/mainstream as well as local/international audiences – these were prevailing reactions from international buyers and programmers polled yesterday in Göteborg. A senior A festival programmer – who asked to remain anonymous- even said: “Today the Nordics are perhaps the strongest region in Europe creatively across TV drama, feature and documentary film.”

Although most titles had already been snatched by the big Nordic sellers – TrustNordisk, LevelK, New Europe Film Sales, The Yellow Affair, Sf Studios – a dozen small offers in post, or in development at the Discovery section, still open for negotiations, made the Göteborg stop-over – fully worthwhile for the 25-plus sales reps in attendance.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for the opening film of Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Competition, “Sons of Denmark.”

The film is a political thriller set in Denmark in 2025, a year after a bomb attack in Copenhagen, when ethnic tensions are running high. An ultra-nationalist politician, Martin Nordahl, and his National Movement are leading in the polls, and influenced by his anti-immigrant rhetoric, society has rapidly turned on ethnic minorities.

In this climate, 19-year-old Zakaria feels compelled to act to protect his family’s safety. However, to do what he feels is necessary to turn the political tide, he needs to abandon his mother and little brother, and get involved in a radical organization.

“The film is a very personal and visual thriller that packs a powerful punch and really catches the zeitgeist of Europe today,” according to New Europe Film Sales, which is handling world sales.