'Worst Person...' and the 10 most successful Norwegian films in the US

by Nathaniel R

Talking about weekend box office isn't as much fun as it was pre-pandemic since it matters less and less with more films opting for streaming only. So let's get super niche instead. With the Oscar nominated The Worst Person in the World doing terrific business in the nation's arthouses -- I even heard strangers talking about it on the subway in NYC, always a great sign that an arthouse film has caught on -- let's talk about how Norwegian films fare at the Oscars and with US moviegoers...

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"Hope" and Norway's Oscar History

by Nathaniel R

The Norwegian Film Institute has selected Maria Sødahl's cancer drama Hope to represent them at the Oscars. The film stars Bræn Hovig and the ever-ubiquitous Stellan Skarsgård (who works as often in Scandinavia as he does in Hollywood, which is to say, a lot) as the couple thrown by a terrible diagnosis. Hope was selected over two other finalists which were: Disco by Jorunn Myklebust Syversen about a young girl mixed up with a Christian cult (which we reviewed at TIFF last fall), and Margreth Olin's documentary The Self Portrait about an acclaimed photographer struggling with anorexia. (Olin was submitted 11 years ago for her second narrative feature Angel though she's primarily a documentarian.)

1987 Norwegian nominee "Pathfinder"Norway has been perpetually overshadowed by Sweden and Denmark in terms of the cinema. They have a smaller film industry than their Scandinavian neighbors but the other problem is a noticeable lack of internationally-adored auteurs. We hoped that the rise of Joachim Trier would change that but, alas, the Oscars aren't helping in that regard as he's been submitted twice from his three Norwegian language films and the Academy passed both times.

Oscar stats and great Norwegian films after the jump...

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