NINE PROJECTS SELECTED FOR THE SØRFOND GRANT IN 2025
A total of 9 projects have been selected for this year’s Sørfond Grant. 5,425,000 Norwegian kroner goes to projects from all around the world that have applied with a Norwegian co-producer attached. This year's grants go to productions from Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, Jordan, Thailand, China/Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Palestine.
This year, the Norwegian Film Institute received 56 applications for Sørfond, with a total requested amount of approximately NOK 41.6 million. Since its launch in 2011, Sørfond has awarded funding to 106 productions, including this year's recipients.
Sørfond is funded through the development aid budget of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is administered by the Norwegian Film Institute in collaboration with the Festivalkontoret Foundation.
This year’s Sørfond jury consisted of filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya), film consultant and producer Sophie Bourdon (France), and Sørfond project manager Mads Wølner Voss.
Jury Statement
From a pool of 56 applications, where 24 exceptional projects were selected for review by the jury, selecting only 9 projects was a very difficult process.
First of all we want to extend a sincere thank you to all the filmmakers baring their souls in these wonderful scripts and treatments we had the honor of reading through. Many powerful stories could not be included in the final selection this year, and we want to recognize the strength of all the projects submitted.
To those who were not selected this year: your work matters. We see your courage and creativity, and we hope to encounter your stories again.
As we live in a time when freedom of expression and human rights are under immediate threat across the globe, each of these courageous projects stands as a testament to the resilience of filmmakers everywhere – and to the hope that art can offer for the future. Supporting these stories in various ways contributes to Sørfond’s core objectives: to strengthen freedom of speech and human rights, promote women’s rights, support film as a form of cultural expression, and champion artistic freedom and cultural diversity.
This year’s selection includes projects from Palestine, Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda, India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Iran. The selected projects each engage with the world we live in in distinct, compelling and brave ways.
- Wanuri Kahiu, Sophie Bourdon, Mads Wølner Voss -
9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN
Photo of the director of 9 Temples to Heaven, Sompot Chidgasornpongse.
Country: Thailand
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Norwegian co-producer: Renée Mlodyszewski – True Content Entertainment
Producer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Support: 600 000 NOK
Synopsis: When a fortune teller warns Sakol that his mother may soon die, he plans a one-day pilgrimage to nine temples to save her. Three generations cram into a van—bringing with them simmering tensions, an ailing grandmother, and one Christian girlfriend. As Grandmother’s health falters and tempers boil over, the family must choose between finishing the journey or finally facing the truth.
Jury Statement: 9 Temples to Heaven is a delightfully sharp and tender road-trip comedy that sneaks up on you with its emotional depth. What begins as one man’s desperate attempt to outwit a prophecy becomes a richly layered exploration of generational conflict, cultural tradition, and the chaos of love in all its imperfect forms. The film’s witty writing, warm ensemble cast, and its ability to balance absurdity with sincerity—offering an unexpected Thai family story that is as funny as it is heartfelt.
Confidential Palestinian Project
Country: Palestine
Film Type: Documentary
Norwegian co-producer: Elisa Fernanda Pirir Ruiz – Stær Productions
Support: 500 000 NOK
BENIMANA
Image from the film Benimana. Photo: DUO Film AS
Country: Rwanda, Ivory Coast
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Marie Clementine Dusabejambo
Norwegian co-producer: Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid – DUO Film AS
Producer: Marie-Epiphanie Uwayezu
Support: 700 000 NOK
Synopsis: Veneranda, a survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi, has built a life rooted in reconciliation and restraint. But when her daughter reveals an unexpected pregnancy, the quiet order she’s clung to begins to unravel.
Jury Statement: Benimama is a compelling intergenerational drama that examines the quiet aftershocks of trauma within a Rwandan community. Benimama has deep emotional clarity and precision. The script handles silence, generational grief, and unspoken tension with restraint and purpose. Benimama offers a powerful and specific look at the personal cost of collective trauma. It shows how reconciliation is not a final act but an ongoing negotiation – one that plays out in kitchens, glances, and ruptured routines. It is an honest, layered narrative that resonates far beyond its setting.
DENGUE
Image from the film Dengue. Photo: DUOfilm AS.
Country: India
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Prantik Basu
Norwegian co-producer: Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid – DUO Film AS
Producer: Tanaji Dasgupta, Prantik Basu
Support: 600 000 NOK
Synopsis: Under a torrential rain, two young men share an umbrella and become lovers, but symptoms of a violent fever seize one of them. A forbidden romance in Calcutta of the 90s.
Jury Statement: Dengue is a heartfelt and intimate portrayal of queer love and identity in 1990s India. The film explores LGBTQIA+ experience with nuance, emotional depth, and symbolic richness. The jury was moved by the authenticity of the world it is set in, its layered script, and the sensitivity with which it handles complex themes. Dengue is both artistically assured and socially vital, especially in times where rights for people in the LGBTQIA+ community are under threat throughout the world. An important contribution to queer cinema.
DIAPHANOUS
Image from the film Diaphanous. Photo: DUOfilm AS.
Country: Iran, China
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Dornaz Hajiha
Norwegian co-producer: Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid – DUO Film AS
Producer: LI Xiaorong
Support: 700 000
Synopsis: When Roshanak’s family seizes her passport to stop her from leaving Iran, she flees to her once-rebellious sister Mojdeh for help. But Mojdeh has given up her art, her fight, and her freedom—now living quietly under her husband’s control. As Roshanak struggles to reclaim her future, she sparks a reckoning that may free them both.
Jury Statement: Diaphanous is a moving and intimate portrait of two sisters caught between duty and desire, silence and expression. The film resonates in its quiet urgency and the nuanced way it explores how art, when stifled, can dim the human spirit – and when reclaimed, can reignite it. Through the evolving bond between Roshanak and Mojdeh, the film becomes a powerful testament to sisterhood as resistance, and to the life-saving force of creativity in the face of control.
FOUR SEASONS IN JAVA
Image from Four Seasons in Java. Photo: Storm Films AS.
Country: Indonesia
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Kamila Andini
Norwegian co-producer: Verona Meier – Storm Films
Producer: Isa Isfansyah
Support: 675 000
Synopsis: A woman released from prison returns to her village to rebuild her life. Together with a group of outcasts, she finds the power to confront her past and redefine her meaning of belonging and peace.
Jury Statement: Four Seasons in Java tells the powerful story of a marginalized woman in an East Java village who wants to give herself a second chance. The Jury was impressed both by the suspenseful script built around a fascinating female character, ready to defy all the challenges and rules imposed by a patriarchal, discriminatory, and oppressive society, and by the poetic and metaphorical form masterfully orchestrated by a singular female voice. This is an important film about resilience, solidarity and the empowerment of women.
MEHAL SEFARI
Image from Mehala Sefari. Photo: Barentsfilm AS.
Country: Ethiopia
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Abraham Gezahagne
Norwegian co-producer: Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid – Barentsfilm
Producer: Abraham Gezahagne
Support: 650 000
Synopsis: A politically apathetic ambulance driver collects bodies from the city streets of Ethiopia's capital during a mass killing. Confronted with his son's body, he's compelled to take a side.
The film is set in 1977, during one of the darkest moments in Ethiopian history: Ethiopia was engulfed in a bloody conflict between the military junta and the main opposition, leading to the infamous "Red Terror"—a period of brutal mass killings.
Jury Statement: The Jury was particularly won over by the captivating storytelling by this first-time director and his bold cinematic approach using the thriller film genre to immerse the viewer in the traumatic Red Terror page of Ethiopian past. With great empathy for his well-portrayed main male character, the director transforms a period film about mass killing in his country into a personal struggle for survival driven by a thirst for peace for future generations and an indelible belief in a free society, respectful of everyone's differences. It is an essential film about healing and reconciliation whose relevance resonates strongly and globally with our times.
RIA
Image from the film Ria. Photo: Fidalgo Film Production AS.
Country: Philippines
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Arvin Belarmino
Norwegian co-producer: Fernanda Renno – Fidalgo Film Productions
Producer: Kristine de Leon
Support: 500 000
Synopsis: Facing demolition by a developer, folk-punk Ria, her foster mom, and their punk gang fight for their home—the last building in their ruined neighborhood.
Jury Statement: RIA is a raw, brave and urgent debut film that pulses with punk energy. Set within a rarely depicted community in the Philippines, the film tells a powerful story of resistance, solidarity, and female empowerment. The jury was especially impressed by the grounded realism, a bold aesthetic, and a strong sense of place, with defiant spirit and political edge.
SOON WE WILL ALL BE HISTORY HERE
Image from Soon We Will All Be History. Photo by Jošt Franko.
Country: Palestine, Jordan
Film Type: Fiction
Director: Saeed Taji Farouky
Norwegian co-producer: Leiv Igor Devold, Maria Caruana Galizia, Estelle Robin You – Aurora Film AS
Producer: Tareq Abu-Lughod, May Odeh
Support: 500 000
Synopsis:
Jury Statement: Soon We Will All Be History Here is a powerful and deeply moving story of intergenerational trauma, resilience, and displacement in southern Gaza, Palestine. Told with poetic restraint, the film offers a vital human perspective on life under Israeli occupation – an especially important act at a time when Palestinian lives are under severe and ongoing threat. The jury was impressed by the project’s emotional depth, richly drawn characters, symbolic imagery and quiet defiance.