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The Ex-Wife – nominated for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Now the biggest movie award in the world is within reach: The Ex-Wife is one of eight movies nominated for Best Nordic Film at the Gothenburg Film Festival. Lindholmen Science Park supported the project, and we had a lively discussion with the women behind the film – director Katja Wik and producer Marie Kjellson.

Yes, in fact the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film is the biggest movie award in the world in terms of how much money the director and production company actually receive. There is stiff competition among the eight Nordic film candidates and the schedule is hectic, but we were able to catch up with Katja and Marie to chat about ‘The Ex-Wife.’

Where did you get the inspiration for this movie?
 “The idea for The Ex-Wife comes from my observations of women's behavior patterns over several generations. How it is possible to unconsciously play a woman’s role assigned to you, when it is limiting and stifles progress,”  Katja explained.

Now that The Ex-Wife has been nominated for the prestigious Dragon Best Nordic Film award, what do you think of your prospects in a field described as ‘maybe the strongest ever’?
“Being nominated for such an outstanding award is a prize in itself, especially with such a strong group of contenders! In our view, our chance of winning is 1 in 8 - nothing more and nothing less!” said Katja, and Marie agreed.

You're getting tremendous exposure during the Gothenburg Film Festival (GIFF). What does this mean for the film and for you?
“It means so much, both for the film and for us at a personal level,” said Marie, who continued: 
“The public showings sold out in a couple of hours! GIFF is the leading film festival in the Nordic region, and in many ways it's a launch pad for new Nordic films to reach the rest of the world . In addition to the public showings, the movie is being shown as part of the Nordic Film Market, the festival’s international marketplace, where it will be seen by distributors, sales agents, buyers and festival programmers from all over the world,” she said enthusiastically.

“On a personal level it's very exciting to be able to have the film debut in our home territory, since it was made possible almost exclusively thanks to the local support we got here, in the form of financing, a team and a post-production company that dared to believe in the project.”

Of course Lindholmen Science Park actively supports innovative development projects in the movie industry, so how did the project financing help make the movie a reality?

“The project financing from Lindholmen Science Park came in while the project was in a stage between traditional screenplay development and production aid. We wanted to work in a way that is innovative, creative and practical for a couple of months during the development stage, while traditional film financing is primarily meant for the screenplay. So the financing played an important role for us, allowing us to keep our goal in sight,” said Marie.

What effect do you hope to have on movie viewers? 

“I've shown a predicament that I hope will cause people to stop and think. The first step in escaping this predicament is to see it,” said Katja.
“And then I want to create a discussion and space for reflection. A lot of people will probably identify with certain scenes, which can be a bit difficult until you say ‘damn that's exactly how I behave’,” Katja concluded.

Watch">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5waH71yZBvE">Watch the official trailer

The film will be shown in cinemas from Februari 17th

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjPvC-eq6tY]