NEXT NORDIC GENERATION
The 2025 Next Nordic Generation - Photo: Grethe Nygaard
The Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund has always had a strong Nordic profile and manifests itself as one of the most important meeting places for the Nordic professional film industry, through our official program and our Nordic film market – New Nordic Films.
Next Nordic Generation is a competition program during the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, presenting a carefully selected selection of newly made student films from the Nordic film students. The competition program is reserved for film schools that are members of Nordicil (Nordic Network for Film Schools).
The Nordic film schools are exclusively invited to submit their graduation films to the competition. A pre-selection jury has put together a program of ten films in total, screened in our official program in Haugesund during New Nordic Films (Aug 25–28)
Criteria:
- Graduation film from the Nordic film schools
- Feature film, documentary or animated film
- Maximum length: 45 min
- English subtitles
- DCP must be available for the festival screening
The selected graduation films for Next Nordic Generation 2026:
Johan Kaos is a screenwriter, director, and producer with more than 20 years of experience as a storyteller, working with both true and fictional stories for film, television, advertising, stage, and literature. He was behind both the rise and fall of the notorious production company Feil Film, where he produced the feature film The Bambi Effect and wrote and directed the feature film Pornopung, which earned Herbert Nordrum an Amanda Award for Best Supporting Actor. He now runs the production company Bellebob.
Marlene Emilie Lyngstad graduated from the Danish Film School in 2023 with her graduation film Norwegian Offspring, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the La Cinéf Prize. The film also won the Next Nordic Generation award later that year. Marlene is making her feature-film directing debut with the Danish film Cute, which will be released in cinemas this autumn. She is currently writing her next feature film, tentatively titled Eutopia.
Irasj Asanti is an award-winning film director with a theater education from Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo. He has appeared in numerous Norwegian films and today works as a director, screenwriter, and actor. Asanti has written and directed several short films that have been screened at festivals and on television channels around the world. His feature film Chiefs (Høvdinger) was nominated for the Kanon Award. The short film Break Me (Knus meg) won the Audience Award at the Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival in 2019. The short film Sand competed for the Golden Chair Award in 2021 and in the official Oscar-qualifying competition at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. His latest short film, Alina, supported by the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI), was completed in 2025, and he is currently in post-production on his debut feature film Fighter.
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