The Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) has awarded NOK24m ($2.55m) in production support to two features about the resistance to the German occupation: Motion Blur’s Skarpskytteren and Paradox Rettigheter’s Osvald. The decisions, dated Tuesday 10 November, make up the whole of the year’s second round in the institute’s market-assessed scheme, which backs films forecast to sell more than 150,000 cinema tickets in Norway.
The odds were long. Twenty-nine projects applied for the two places, and the winners complete a 2026 slate that NFI cut from seven films to six in June, when payouts to films already in cinemas ran ahead of its budget.
Key facts
- Skarpskytteren (Motion Blur): NOK14.2m ($1.51m), the scheme’s upper level, on a total budget of NOK72.5m ($7.70m).
- Osvald (Paradox Rettigheter): NOK9.8m ($1.04m), the lower level, on a total budget of NOK54.5m ($5.79m).
- FilmBunch-established: two of 29 applications succeeded (6.9%), and the winners account for 8.3% of the NOK1.53bn ($162.8m) the 29 applicants budgeted between them.
- FilmBunch-established: the scheme’s 2026 production support totals NOK72m ($7.65m) across six films, three at each level; Paradox Rettigheter has two of the six.
- With post-release support counted, NFI puts its total commitment to the two films at NOK54m ($5.74m).
The two films
Skarpskytteren (literally The Sharpshooter; no English title has been announced) is based on the story of Mary Hustad, an 18-year-old from the island of Sørøya who refused to flee when German forces set Finnmark ablaze and joined the volunteers who fought there in the spring of 1945. Cecilie Mosli, whose Tre nøtter til Askepott (2021) is one of the most-watched Norwegian films of the past decade, directs from a script by Harald Rosenløw-Eeg and Lars Gudmestad, the writers of Nordsjøen (2021), Konvoi (2023) and the Netflix series La Palma. Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud produce for Motion Blur, which made Nr. 24 (2024), the story of the resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby.
Osvald is a thriller inspired by real events about Asbjørn Sunde, the leader of the Osvald Group, which carried out a string of sabotage attacks during the occupation of 1940–45. NFI calls him the resistance’s “biggest underdog”. Jens Lien, director of Den brysomme mannen (2006), Sønner av Norge (2011) and the HBO series Beforeigners, directs from a script by Thomas Moldestad, who wrote the Netflix film Konferensen (2023). Finn Gjerdrum and Isak Eymundsson produce for Paradox Rettigheter, the company behind Kongens nei (2016) and Quislings siste dager (2024).
“The Second World War continues to engage Norwegian cinemagoers,” said Kjersti Mo, NFI’s director, in the institute’s announcement. “Several of our biggest film successes of recent decades have taken their stories from the Second World War.” The two projects, she added, bring new perspectives on the resistance and the people who took part in it. Her remarks are our translation from Norwegian.
How the round was decided
Fourteen projects applied at the upper level and 15 at the lower one. The upper level requires an audience estimate of more than 250,000 tickets in ordinary Norwegian cinema release, the lower more than 150,000. A panel of two industry representatives and one from NFI sets each project’s estimate, and the highest estimates at each level win; the institute’s feature-film consultant may also choose one lower-level film on artistic grounds. Applicants need at least 80% of their financing confirmed and a binding deal with a Norwegian cinema distributor before they file.
Both winners took the full sum at their level, which covers 19.6% of Skarpskytteren’s budget and 18.0% of Osvald’s. Both are also larger than the typical applicant: the 29 projects averaged about NOK52.8m each.
The field was slightly smaller than a year ago, when 31 projects applied in the equivalent round for awards of NOK13.2m and NOK8.8m. NFI has since raised the two levels by 7.6% and 11.4%, after what it describes as dialogue with the industry.
Every film backed by the scheme qualifies automatically for post-release support: 75% of its documented Norwegian revenues over the first three years, rising to 150% for children’s films, capped at NOK18m ($1.91m) for an upper-level project and NOK12m ($1.28m) for a lower-level one. That cap is how two awards of NOK24m become a NOK54m commitment. The scheme page and both of this year’s announcements set the trigger at 10,000 tickets in ordinary Norwegian release; NFI’s announcement of the equivalent round in November 2025 gave it as 35,000.
The 2026 slate
The first round, announced on 17 April, shared NOK48m between four films. At the upper level were Hvis ingen går i fella 2, the sequel to the most-watched film in Norwegian cinemas in 2025, and Roar Uthaug’s Kielland, about the Alexander L. Kielland platform disaster; at the lower level, the animated Pepperkakebyen and Tonje Glimmerdal, adapted from Maria Parr’s bestselling children’s novel.
The institute had planned seven market films this year. Its revised fund budget in June cut that to six because post-release payouts were running above estimate, mainly because payments slipped from 2025 into 2026, two new titles with regional financing qualified and a large market film premiered earlier than planned. NFI said then that it expects to set aside more for post-release support in 2027.
Across the six films, budgets total NOK361.8m ($38.4m), so the institute’s NOK72m in production support covers just under a fifth. Paradox Rettigheter, with Gjerdrum producing both Kielland and Osvald, accounts for NOK24m of it.
Our reading
The scheme rewards projects that can show a large Norwegian audience on paper, and the occupation has supplied a steady run of them, as Mo herself acknowledges. For producers, the round is a lesson in the odds: 27 of 29 applicants must wait for another round, and the number of places depends on how much the institute has to hold back for films already earning post-release money. The next test is NFI’s 2027 fund budget, which will show whether the expected rise in those payouts trims the market slate again.
The scheme is not among the 16 artistically assessed schemes NFI is closing to new applications from 15 December. Other European funds are settling their own autumn rounds, among them northern Germany’s MOIN and Spain’s ICAA; more is in Money & Policy.
NOK figures are converted at the European Central Bank reference rates for 9 November 2026 (€1 = NOK10.5325 = $1.1193).
Sources
- Norsk filminstitutt, Spenningsfilmene Skarpskytteren og Osvald får 24 millioner i tilskudd, 10 November 2026 (Norwegian)
- Norsk filminstitutt, grants database (decisions dated 10 November 2026), checked 10 November 2026
- Norsk filminstitutt, Fire nye spillefilmer får tilskudd etter markedsvurdering, 17 April 2026 (Norwegian)
- Norsk filminstitutt, Justert fondsbudsjett er vedteke, 18 June 2026 (Nynorsk)
- Norsk filminstitutt, Tre nye spillefilmer får tilskudd etter markedsvurdering, 13 November 2025 (Norwegian)
- Norsk filminstitutt, scheme page: Produksjon av spillefilm etter markedsvurdering, checked 10 November 2026
- European Central Bank reference rates, 9 November 2026 (NOK 10.5325 and USD 1.1193 per euro)