Forum Projects 2025

Projects Selected for Pitch

Denmark

My Rebel Heart

Amid occupation and war, My Rebel Heart follows young actress Yara as she navigates the delicate balance between her artistic ambitions and the fight for Palestinian liberation. In the West Bank, she and her community face the harsh realities of oppression while holding on to their dreams, resilience, and identity.

by Ida Kat Balslev / Siersted Film, Sidsel Lønvig Siersted

An Unlikely Hero

A brilliant inventor with several diagnoses and anxiety goes on a scientific mission to the Arctic Ocean to find out if the Gulf Stream will collapse.

by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld / Hansen & Pedersen, Anne Krysiza Sørensen

Two Minutes of Hate

With intimate access to a leading group tracking extremism, Two Minutes of Hate follows global trends in online hate and explores the human cost.

by Rachel Boynton / Paloma Productions, Per Damgaard Hansen

We Are Not Leaving [Danish Wildcard]

How do you continue living and build a new everyday life in the midst of war?

by Christina Amundsen / Sonntag Pictures ApS, Line Aas Sørensen, Sara Stockmann

Finland

Crossing the River

One day, everything went to shits. Thousands of endangered freshwater pearl mussels were crushed in an instant. Absurd tale in the middle of nowhere.

by Virpi Suutari  / Euphoria Film, Virpi Suutari

The Game of Chaos

This investigative documentary follows experts on the frontlines of digital warfare. It examines how modern influence operations bypass traditional systems to manipulate perception, shifting the balance of power through cyberattacks, disinformation, and strategic intimidation. In this game, firewalls don’t stop the attacks — people do.

by Kinocompany Ltd., Ari Matikainen

Myllylä

Mika Myllylä was a national icon and Olympic hero whose fall from grace shook Finland. Through decades of home videos, a deeply personal story unfolds — of love, pressure, shame, and the cost of greatness.

by Sean Ricks / Wacky Tie Films, Pasi Hakkio

Creaturama – Epic of the Animals

Creaturama is a poetic nature film from the animals’ point of view — not narrated by humans, but rhythmically shaped by the animals themselves.

by Juha Suonpää / Swamphead Oy, Juha Suonpää

The Runaway Brain [Finnish Wildcard]

Nikke Liinamaa’s brain escapes and leads the viewer through a hand-drawn inner world blending animation and creative documentary.

by Sanna Liinamaa / Kajo Productions, Jorma Kaulanen

Iceland

Ukulellur

From chaos to joyful acts of rebellion. Thirteen queer women with a 40-year age gap form a ukulele band and find harmony where no one expected it.

by Elísabet Thoroddsen / La Chana ehf, Greta Olafsdottir, Susan Muska

LÝRIKK [Icelandic Wildcard]

Journey into the hidden world of rímur singers and poets, where we explore how this ancient tradition beats through the heart of our country today.

by Haukur M. Hrafnsson, Ásta Júlía Guðjónsdóttir  / Noumena Films, Hallur Örn Árnason

Norway

This Too Shall Change

A young woman embarks on a journey through the homeland of her ancestors – Norway and Russia, aiming to restore balance and peace to the world.

by Natalja G. B. Jacobsen / True Stories Production AS, Ola Hunnes

Weeds

Weeds is a humorous and poignant feature about outsiders in society and weeds in nature. What is lost when we reject what doesn’t fit in?

by Bår Tyrmi, Dag Mykland / Hacienda Film, Dag Mykland

Mystery Package

For 22 years, a mysterious Christmas package has arrived at Edle and Brage’s grandparents’ home. This year, the young siblings become detectives to uncover the secret sender behind the gifts.

by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen/ A5 Film, Mari Bakke Riise, Silje Evensmo Jacobsen

Somewhere Over the Rainbow [Norwegian Wildcard]

Two Iranian women from different corners of the world meet through the internet and become close friends, together they create a utopian Iran.

by Mary Nunpau Hasavari / Matches Films, Mary Nunpau Hasavari, Aurora Hannisdal

In Flux

In Ghana, Pakistan, and Cape Verde, young people face the same dilemma: leave and try to make it in Europe, or stay and build a life at home?

by Julie Lunde Lillesæter / Differ Media, Natalya Sarch

The Greatest Illusion

An exploration of memories, loss and trauma in a magician’s life.

by Benjamin Ree / Medieoperatørene AS,Ingvil Giske

Sweden

The Palme Syndrome

Decades after Prime Minister Olof Palme’s murder, ordinary Swedes chase suspects and memories, each drawn to a wound the nation never quite closed.

Maria Fredriksson / Ballad Film AB, Ina Holmqvist

The Days I Will Forget [Swedish Wildcard]

A filmmaker creates a time loop to force her alcoholic father to change. As he relives the same day, she realizes she might be the one in a loop.

by Morgane Dziurla-Petit / GötaFilm AB, Paul Blomgren

Untitled Timbuktu Documentary

In Harlem, Swedish rapper Timbuktu confronts his father’s past in an attempt to heal their shared legacy.

by Simon Klose / Anagram Sweden, Martin Persson, Elin Kamlert

Rethink

Christoffer is on a global mission to prevent child abuse. His starting point is helping the paedophiles – a method which might seem controversial.

byJohanna Ställberg, Sophie Robinson / WG Film AB, Margarete Jangård, Fredrik Gertten, Hanna Markkanen

Lithuania

After the Storm

In the stormy Baltic Sea, a group of amber fishermen combs the Lithuanian coast, chasing traces of time and memory.

by Francesco Rufini / Ketvirta Versija, Valdemar Lovčik, Teresa Rožanovska

Czechia

Always Far Away

Vojta, son of a circus director, seeks his own voice beyond the seven-generation legacy he was born into and expected to inherit.

by Roman Ďuriš / Lonely Production, Michal Sikora

Projects Selected for Observer+

Denmark

Colonial Tour

A tragicomic, humanistic documentary exploring how Danish tourism in the US Virgin Islands, formerly Danish West Indies, mirrors past power struggles
by Adam Paaske, Tambo Film, Rikke Tambo Andersen

All I Ever Wanted

An intimate love story about a young couple who must redefine their future when leukemia strikes just as they welcome their second child.
by Christina Martiny Moltke / Final Cut for Real ApS, Esther Nissen, Maria Kristensen

Confidential Project

by Laurits Nansen, Nikolaj Viborg / Eight Pictures

Kimik

Greenlandic artists give voice to an era of upheaval. Preparing a 30th-anniv. exhibit, they critique conflicts as old colonial ties face new powers (e.g., USA). Their art counters media, reflecting a changing world & telling a story of identity, resistance, renewal, & renegotiated borders.
by Lisbeth Karline Poulsen, Alexander Lind  / GotFat Productions, Emil Johnsen

Sidekick

Oliver dedicates his life to helping his best friend William – until he realizes he must first save himself. As William’s ambitions grow, Oliver’s life stalls. Filmed over four years, the series captures their deep bond, painful rupture, and emotional reunion, exploring friendship, care, and what it truly means to stand on your own.
by Frederik Uhrbrand, Adam Klixbüll Eisenhardt / Emjay Productions ApS, Maria Robstad Nielsen

Blood Moon

Blood Moon explores gender-based violence by interweaving women’s personal stories, insights from frontline professionals, and the director’s own reflections on the gender norms she grew up with. It challenges the myth of equality and examines if everyday sexism sustains a culture of violence. The film invites us to listen, to question and to imagine a society where no one is silenced.
by Cille Hannibal / Ström Pictures, Monica Hellström

Finland

The Edge of Endurance

The Edge of Endurance studies, sometimes humorously, relationship of humans and mosquitoes and how mosquitoes shape humans’ relationship with nature. The narrator leads the journey through the landscapes of northern Finland and Sweden, through travelogues from the 18th and 19th centuries, from history to the present day, telling about the coexistence and encounters between humans and mosquitoes.
by Kirsikka Paakkinen / Pystymetsä Oy, Outi Rousu

Jamila’s Children

A family of six siblings in Finland is caught between two cultures. Arezo, the guardian, rejects tradition to live freely, while her brother Navid spirals toward radicalization. As tensions rise, the family must confront love, identity, and the high cost of honor before it threatens to tear them apart.
by Arezo Ariapoor / Guerilla Films, Iiris Härmä

Finding Kvens

Kjersti, an unstoppable performance artist, activist and dentist, fights to prove that Kven culture — a Norwegian minority with Finnish roots — is still alive, even when society and those around her resist her. The film navigates in the chaotic world of Kvens going through history, opposition and family relations becoming a story of silences between the generations and within the families.
by Einari Paakkanen / napafilms Oy Marianne Mäkelä

Iceland

Trapped in Ice

While waiting for the European Court of Human Rights to rule on her lawsuit against Iceland, the world’s leading country in Gender Equality for 15 years, Australian plastic artist Nara Walker tries to recover from the trauma of being a survivor of gender violence. She had to face a condemnatory sentence in an Icelandic prison for biting her husband’s tongue in an act of self-defence.
by Alexia Muiños Ruiz, Lea Ævars. & Ragnar Axelsson / NyArk Media ehf , Lea Ævars.

Norway

Rehearsing for Justice

A Palestinian filmmaker stages unlikely and dramatic confrontations with a symbolic Israeli war criminal. The confrontations open up questions about the heavy psychological burden of witnessing a genocide, while being stripped from agency to helping or saving anyone.
by Dalia Al-Kury/ Integral Film AS, Ola Hunnes, Nefise Özkal Lorentzen

The Sound of Success

When filmmaker Stian Vetle Dale discovers his son has speech difficulties, he fears repeating his own childhood defined by poverty, shame, and isolation. Facing painful memories, Stian commits to breaking destructive family cycles in a poetic exploration of fatherhood, mental health, and the healing power of communication.
by Stian Vetle Dale / PictuRama, Heidi Strand, Stian Vetle Dale

North of North

North of North is a documentary about the Arctic’s profound transformations, seen through the eyes of the crew aboard the small sailboat Barba.
by Mark Romanov / Speranza Film AS, Margreth Olin

King Annie

Annie, a queer small town person moves to the big city and finds a newly formed Drag house. Drag Queens rule the stage, and Annie’s Rock and Roll-Drag King-Alter Ego; Maple Thorpe, will have to challenge the culture in order to conquer the World of Drag.
by Benjamin García Langeland / Indie Film Bergen, Thorvald Nilsen

The Iron Women

The Iron Women is the story of how Fawzia Koofi unites Afghan women from within the country and those in exile to fight against the Taliban. They create an organization to get the international community to pressure the Taliban’s grip on Afghanistan and their draconian laws against women. It is a fight for women’s rights that they must win to ensure a better future for Afghanistan’s daughters.
by Gry Winther / Graham Film AS, Anders Graham, Rabea Junge Wold & Ola Hunnes

Sweden

The Pink Ship

Aboard a bright pink ship donated by graffiti artist Banksy, a crew of determined activists sails the Mediterranean to rescue refugees. Among them are Leona and Marie – two friends, mid-career women who abandon the comfort of their homes to confront the deadly consequences of border injustice. This film offers an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at civil disobedience and the fight for a just world.
by Ylva Rafstedt Lindgren, Linn Björklund / Mantaray Film AB, Stina Gardell

Graceland

In Graceland, filmmaker Tova Mozard embarks on a spiritual and emotional journey to confront her father’s legacy of darkness and life spirit. Blending therapy sessions with dreamlike visuals, she explores memory, grief, and generational trauma – traveling with her teenage son to Northern Thailand, where her father died from a heroin overdose, in search of understanding and connection.
by Tova Mozard / Mantaray Film AB, Mirjam Gelhorn

Till Death Do Us Part

On an Alaskan island, the village of Shishmaref is losing one meter of land each year. Tim, once a star basketball player, now struggles with unemployment and providing for his son, Kenny. Kenny, 15, enjoys the simple island life until he falls in love with Larissa, which brings new responsibilities. As Tim faces terminal cancer, both he and Kenny confront their fears, finding strength and hope in each other.
by Samir Arabzadeh / MDEMC, Elisabeth Marjanovic Cronvall

Daydream of Darkness

Daydream of Darkness is a horror-doc about Helen Adam, a forgotten poet-witch whose eerie work fused horror, magic and jet-black humour. From the Beat scene to queer punk, she unsettled norms and inspired icons. Blending biography and terror, the film revives her legacy in a time of crises, where her vision feels more vital than ever.
by Tomas Stark /  Picky Pictures, Gustav Ahlgren

Joy to the World

When their mother dies by suicide, five sisters are torn apart. Artist Joy M’Batha turns her pain into powerful music and art, breaking the silence that separated them. As they reconnect and journey to South Africa, they begin to heal—rewriting their story not as victims, but as survivors bound by sisterhood, heritage, and hope.
by Jessica Nettelbladt / Lejoni Production, Jessica Nettelbladt

Hungary

Frozen Ocean

Young Hungarian filmmaker Viktória retraces a historic Arctic voyage aboard a sailing ship, exploring how stories of survival and cooperation resonate in today’s divided world. Through the voices of Arctic communities she meets along the way, she finds unexpected lessons about nature, balance, and the power of community – values that could help shape a more inclusive and resilient future.
by Viktória Dénes / Éclipse Film Ltd., Julianna Ugrin

Estonia

Bialiatsky – Unbroken

When Russia launches a full-scale war against Ukraine, people go there to help in any way they can. Among them is Erko, an electrician from a tiny village in Estonia. Without taking a break, he spends more time volunteering in Ukraine than with his wife and 1-year old child at home. This is causing a rift between him and his wife, forcing Erko to decide between war or his family.
by Eimantas Belickas / Ketvirta Versija, Teresa Rožanovska

Slovakia

In My Head

From mammoths to deadlines, our minds struggle to adapt. Accept the invitation to an honest meeting with your Brain, who will introduce you to his good friends – Anxiety, Eating Disorder and Depression. Look inside yourself and discover that it’s okay not to be okay.
by Veronika Zubek Kocourkova / Super film, Monika Lošťáková, Simona Hrusovska