Director and screenwriter Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s debut feature film Armand has been invited to the prestigious Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival. The film has received funding through the Norwegian Film Institute’s talent scheme Neo.
11/04/2024 Renate Reinsve plays the lead role in Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s debut film Armand. Photo: Eye Eye Pictures
The Un Certain Regard section is part of the official Cannes Film Festival programme. It is the fourth time in eleven years that a Norwegian film has been invited to Un Certain Regard, Kristoffer Borgli’s Syk pike in 2022, Eskil Vogt’s De uskildge in 2021 and Joachim Trier’s Oslo 31 August in 2011. Previously, Vibeke Løkkeberg, Unni Straume, Stefan Faldbakken and Bent Hamer had world premieres of their films in Un Certain Regard. With a screening in this programme, Armand can receive awards in Un Certain Regard for, among other things, best film and best director.
New great talent
– Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel is one of our new, great talents. The invitation from Cannes is a great recognition of his unique voice as a director. It will be a very good start to the international career for both Tøndel and the film Armand. We are looking forward to the world premiere in Cannes, says Kjersti Mo, director of the Norwegian Film Institute.
Parents meeting at school
The film Armand unfolds over one afternoon at a primary school. Elisabeth is called to a parents’ meeting at short notice. Her son is accused of something, but what this “something” is seems unclear. Soon the principal, health nurse and another pair of parents are also part of a meeting over which the school quickly loses control.
The main role in Armand is interpreted by Renate Reinsve, who received the award in Cannes as best actress for her role in Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated The World‘s Worst Man. She can also be seen in Thea Hvistendahl’s Håndtering av undøde (Handling of the Undead). Other actors in the film are Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Øystein Røger and Vera Veljovic
Back to Cannes
Producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar is also well known in Cannes as one of the producers on Joachim Trier’s The World‘s Worst Man. It entered the main competition at Cannes and later received two Oscar nominations and two BAFTA nominations. She was also a producer on Kristoffer Borgli’s Syk pike, which was shown in the Un Certain Regard program in Cannes in 2022. Ottmar runs the production company Eye Eye Pictures together with Dyveke Bjørkly Graver, who is executive producer on Armand together with Joachim Trier.
About the director and screenwriter
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel is a trained director from Westerdals. He made his debut with the short film Fuglehjerter (2015), which among other things won the golden chair in Grimstad and was nominated for Amanda. In 2017, he made the short story film Fanny, which was also nominated for Amanda. In 2015, Tøndel was one of ten European filmmakers in the Future Frame program at the film festival in Karlovy Vary under the auspices of European Film Promotion in collaboration with Variety.
About the movie
Armand has received NOK 8,111,625 in development and production grants from the Norwegian Film Institute. In addition, the film has received support from SFI, NL Film fond and Talent Norway. The film is co-produced with Prolaps Produktion (Sweden), Film i Väst (Sweden), Keplerfilm (Netherlands), Zefyr (Norway) and One Two films (Germany). The Norwegian distributor is Norsk Filmdistribusjon and the French company Charades is the international sales agent.
The film has a planned Norwegian cinema premiere on 27.09.24
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Stine Oppegaard
- Phone: +47 908 59 638
- Email: stine.oppegaard[@]nfi.no
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Jakob Berg
- Phone: +47 971 977 66
- E-mail: jakob.berg[@]nfi.no
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