Fanny Ovesen
Writer-director
Norway & Sweden
Fanny Ovesen is a Swedish writer-director based in Oslo. She has a bachelor in social and cultural sciences from Sweden and a director’s degree from The Norwegian Film School. Her graduation film from the latter, SHE-PACK, premiered at the Berlinale in 2019 and has won numerous awards since then – among them an Amanda Award for Best Norwegian Short.
For her upcoming feature LAURA, Fanny won the Nordic Talents Pitch Prize and the Swedish Film Institute’s talent support Wild Card, as well as the Anna Prize – awarded for the project’s relevance to the UN Women’s Convention.
In 2020 Fanny directed episodes on the Norwegian drama series NACH for Discovery+. In 2021 she directed the Swedish Television series ALL THAT IS LEFT, which was presented in Cannes 2022 as part of the MIPDrama line-up with tv-series particularly appealing to global buyers.
Project
Save the poor!
[working title]
Hege (29) wants to be recognised as a filmmaker with something important to tell, but dismisses her own life as uncinematic.
On a visit to northern Norway, she enters a previous fishing hub turned into hipstery tourist and climbing paradise. Here she meets Borghild (53), an eccentric woman who struggles to make ends meet in her tavern from the old days. She’s open to letting Hege tell her story – and Hege sees her chance for breakthrough as a socially engaged filmmaker. Hege starts writing a fiction script meant to portray the struggle of a poor working-class family against capitalism and gentrification. But this idealistic project turns out to be quite a challenge, since Borghild is a ruthless, manipulative woman – she pays her employees in black money, lies about everything and doesn’t hesitate to use Hege’s good intentions to achieve what she wants. While spending time with this woman from another world, Hege’s altruistic self-image is deeply challenged.
