Guests at the festival this year

One of Iceland’s most famous and award-winning actors, Ingvar Sigurðsson, is this year’s guest at the Northern Film Festival to present his new film A White White Day. The actor is known for, among other things, the film that opened the Northern Film Festival in 2014, Of Horses and Men, but has also appeared in major Hollywood productions such as Justice League and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The Icelandic drama A White White Day by director Hlynur Pálmason is about mourning, revenge and unconditional love. Sigurðsson plays the fascinating role of Ingimunder, a retired police officer who suspects his wife was having an affair before her death and becomes obsessed with discovering the truth. Sigurðsson will be present at the festival for Q&A at the screenings on Thursday at 2:00 PM, Friday at 11:45 AM and Saturday at 7:15 PM.

The oppressive thriller A Certain Kind of Silence is the debut film by Czech director Michal Hogenauer and an international co-production with the Netherlands and Latvia, where the film was shot. After the world premiere in Karlovy Vary, the film will now have its Dutch premiere in Leeuwarden at 3:15 pm in the presence of a large part of the cast & crew!

Photo of the premiere in Karlovy Vary

A Certain Kind of Silence is a co-production with an almost complete Dutch cast with leading roles for Monic Hendrickx, Roeland Fernhout and the now 12-year-old Jacob Jutte. Based on a true story about the Christian sect called Twelve Tribes, this film tells the story of au pair Mia who is going to work for a rich Dutch couple (Hendrickx and Fernhout) who have disturbing rules of life. Director Michal Hogenauer, the protagonists Monic Hendrickx, Roeland Fernhout and Jacob Jutte, producers of Circe Films and various other cast and crew members are present at the festival to celebrate the premiere.

Photo: film still from A Certain Kind of Silence with Roeland Fernhout and Jacob Jutte.

In addition to her presence at the premiere of A Certain Kind of Silence, Monic Hendrickx will also be present for a Q&A on Sunday evening at 8:15 pm after the screening of the Frisian costume drama Nynke, which is being screened as part of the extensive ode to the Frisian director Pieter Verhoeff who died this year. Hendrickx played the leading role in 2001 as Nynke van Hichtum, children’s book writer of Afke’s Tiental and the wife of Piter Jelles Troelstra. For this interpretation she and Jeroen Willems had to learn to speak Frisian. She received a Golden Calf for Best Actress for this role.

Photo: film still from Nynke (2001)

Actor Peter Tuinman joins the Ode to Pieter, along with writer Geert Mak, Verhoeff’s wife Hanneke Heeremans and cameraman Paul van den Bos, to a Live in memoriam around Verhoeff on Sunday afternoon November 10 at 2:15 PM.

Tuinman is also present at the screenings of ‘Het teken van het beest’ on Saturday at 5 p.m. with a Q&A and on Sunday morning at ‘Van geluk gesproken’ and ‘De Dream’ for a short introduction.

Photo: film still from Van Lucky spoken (1987)

Richard Hobert is a Swedish director and scriptwriter who comes to Leeuwarden to present his film The Birdcatcher’s Son. This is a nineteenth-century family drama that takes place entirely on the Faroe Islands. Bird catcher Esmar and his wife need a male heir to preserve their land. Out of desperation, they call in the beloved French Captain of their best friend to make Johanna pregnant again.

Hobert is at the festival from Friday to Sunday and is present at all screenings of the film for Q&A’s.

Rúnar Rúnarsson is an Icelandic director and has been a guest at the Northern Film Festival with his debut film Volcano (2011). In 2016 his second feature film Sparrows was shown at the festival. Now it’s time for Echo, something very different. Echo is a unique collage or mosaic of 56 beautifully filmed and isolated scenes in which a bittersweet portrait of modern Icelandic society around Christmas time is portrayed. The film premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival and received many good reviews from the film press. Rúnarsson will be present at the screenings on Friday at 7:30 PM and Saturday at 11:45 AM.

The Dutch documentary maker Willem Baptist presents his new film Ring of Dreams about the world of show wrestling. Among the wrestlers are also two Frisians: pro-wrestling veteran Jurn Simmons who is making furore at home and abroad and trainee Jorne van der Kamp, who is now active as a referee. The film gives a moving and at times comical glimpse behind the scenes of show wrestling in the Netherlands, where boys and girls fight for their dreams and try to escape from their daily lives. The two Frisian wrestlers are present together with director Willem Baptist at the screening on Sunday at 10:30 in Slieker.

The Dutch documentary maker Marc Schmidt (known from, among others, The Rules of Matthijs and The Chimpanzee Complex) presents his new sensuous documentary In the arms of Morpheus about radical sleep experiences. He is present at the screening of his film on Thursday evening at 22:00 in De Harmonie.

Marc Schmidt is also affiliated with the Filmkick Academy and gives a master class for the participants there.

Marleen Slot founded production company Viking Film in 2011, with which she has made many productions. Before that she worked for many years as a producer at Lemming film. Last year Marleen was a guest at our festival as a co-producer of the Irish film Good Favour by Rebecca Daly. As an experienced producer, she has worked on many major titles such as Zurich, Neon Bull and Dirty God. With the latter she recently won the Golden Calf for best film! The film had a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It was the first time that a Dutch film managed to get to the main competition there. In a special Masterclass on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm Marleen Slot discusses how you can reach such a world audience with your film.

The Frisian director Mirjam de With is no stranger to the Northern Film Festival. This time she presents her latest film Taiki, which will be screened in the junior program on Sunday morning at 11:30 am during the Film & Food Family Brunch in Neushoorn and is also selected in the Noorderkroon competition. Taiki is about nine-year-old Bruno being kicked out of the car by his parents on their way to Sweden. He decides to take them back by walking away in the Swedish wilderness.

Mirjam de With also gives two workshops to filmmakers within the Filmkick Academy.

Film still from ‘As myn filmhert in kompas wie’ of Annet Huisman, in which Mirjam is interviewed.

In 2018, the Frisian director Rutger Veenstra won the Filmkick Competition with his plan Nei de dûns. Due to circumstances he could not realize the film in the same year, but in 2019 the film was nevertheless delivered beautifully. The short film will have its world premiere as a pre-film for the official opening film of the festival on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in De Harmonie. Nei de dûns has an almost completely Frisian cast (Jan Arendz and Marijke Geertsma) and crew, who will enter the stage together with Rutger at the world premiere on the opening night. The film will then be screened twice and on Saturday at 2:00 PM Rutger will be there again for a Q&A.

This year the Filmkick was won by Sven Peetoom and Dobber Bolhuis. These young makers from the south of the country have fully recorded their film Fietsvakantie in Friesland this summer. The film will premiere on the closing night of the festival, Sunday at 8:15 PM in De Harmonie, as a pre-film for the Audience Award winner in the Aegonzaal. Sven and Dobber will be present together with the rest of the cast & crew.

Many regional filmmakers are present at the screening of their films within the Noorderkroon. So there are also a large number of Q&As with the Noorderkroon films where the audience can talk to the makers about their film. On the program page you will find information about a possible Q&A with the film or film block.

In connection with the Filmkick Academy, a five-day course for filmmakers at the festival, there will also be a number of filmmakers walking around. They are giving (closed) master classes, workshops or coaching sessions for the participants. The professionals who are speaking on the Academy are: Marc Schmidt (documentary maker), Marleen Slot (producer), Ditteke Mensink (director), Harmen Jalvingh (producer), Piet-Harm Sterk (producer), Tim Murck (actor), Roel van de Weijer (producer and financier), Laurens Krispijn de Boer (scriptwriter), Wander Theunis (scriptwriter), Esther van Driesum (script consultant) & Mirjam de With (director).