Thrillers Skarpskytteren and Osvald receive 24 million in funding

– The Second World War continues to engage Norwegian cinema audiences. Several of our biggest box office successes over the past decades have drawn their stories from the Second World War. With Skarpskytteren and Osvald we get new perspectives on the resistance movement and the people who took part in it. These are powerful stories about courage and difficult choices, which are also relevant in our own time, says CEO Kjersti Mo at the Norwegian Film Institute.

Skarpskytteren

Skarpskytteren. Production funding: 14 200 000 kroner. Production company: Motion Blur AS. Producers: Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud. Direction: Cecilie Mosli. Script: Harald Rosenløw-Eeg and Lars Gudmestad. Total budget: 72 500 000 kroner

Synopsis: When the Germans set Finnmark on fire, 18-year-old Mary Hustad refuses to flee from Sørøya and chooses to fight. Mary goes from underestimated Lotte to feared sniper, before she discovers that the courage to take a life also has a price. Based on a true story.

Motion Blur by Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud has produced, among other things, the box office success Nr. 24 (2024), about the resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby, and the Netflix successes Troll/Troll 2 (2022-25). Cecilie A. Mosli has directed projects such as Mammon, Borderliner and the upcoming Netflix series Florida. She directed the feature film Three Nuts for Cinderella (2021), one of the most-watched Norwegian cinema films of the past decade. Scriptwriters Harald Rosenløw-Eeg and Lars Gudmestad have written numerous TV series and feature films together, including last year's Netflix success La Palma, and cinema films such as The North Sea (2021), Convoy (2023) and Before Darkness (2025).

Osvald

Osvald. Production funding: 9 800 000 kroner. Production company: Paradox Rettigheter AS. Producers: Finn Gjerdrum and Isak Eymundsson. Direction: Jens Lien. Script: Thomas Moldestad. Total budget: 54 500 000 kroner

Synopsis: Thriller inspired by real events, about the Norwegian resistance movement's biggest underdog: Asbjørn Sunde, the leader of the legendary Osvald Group.

The production company Paradox Rettigheter has previously made, amongst others, The King's Choice (2016) and Quisling - The Final Days (2024). Scriptwriter Thomas Moldestad has been co-writer on features such as The Gold Transport (2019) and the TV series Zombielars (2017) and Dirty Snow (2019), and wrote the Netflix film The Conference (2023). Director Jens Lien has directed feature films like The Bothersome Man (2006) and Sons of Norway (2011), and TV series such as Beforeigners (HBO, 2019-2021) and Occupied (2017).

About the application round

29 applications were received for this round: 14 applications at the funding level of 14 200 000 kroner and 15 applications at the funding level of 9 800 000 kroner. The total budget for all applications combined is 1 531 689 039 kroner. Including automatic post-completion funding, these two grants together trigger 54 million kroner in allocated funding.

About the funding scheme

The funding scheme for the production of feature films based on market assessment aims to stimulate feature films of high quality and with high audience potential. Funding is awarded at two levels, 14 200 000 kroner and 9 800 000 kroner in production funding. Funding at the highest level requires an audience estimate of over 250 000 tickets sold in regular theatrical distribution. Funding at the lowest level requires an audience estimate of over 150 000 tickets sold in regular theatrical distribution. The scheme has two application deadlines a year.

The applications are evaluated by a panel consisting of representatives from the film industry and the Norwegian Film Institute. The panel ranks the projects according to audience estimate.

The films that receive production funding in the market scheme qualify for automatic post-completion funding upon reaching 10 000 tickets sold through regular theatrical distribution in Norway. This means up to 18 million kroner in post-completion support for projects in the major scheme, and up to 12 million kroner for projects in the minor scheme.