Newcomer of the Year: Weird and Wonderful Cinema

Wonderful and strange film in Etterstad.

(Top photo, from left: Thomas Palmera, Frans Friese, Ole Peter Arneberg, Thorbjorn Larsen and Danny Feng)

Weird and wonderful cinema has shown from the start that it is going against the grain. When the pandemic forced movie clubs to close, Weird & Wonderful was founded while Covid-19 was at its worst.

They wanted to show movies that people couldn’t easily see anywhere else.

“We want to show films that stand out and can surprise film fans in general, and after our screenings we invite the audience into an informal conversation about what we experienced together – making room for thought-provoking and stimulating conversations,” he said. The club in his candidacy earlier this year.

new category

The board of directors of the Norwegian Film Association, which is the jury for the awards awarded by the association, saw the need for a new award category this year.

– Every year there are many film clubs that deserve the Best Film Club of the Year award. On the board we often see that relatively new movie clubs excel with great effort and creative solutions. But the Film Club of the Year often goes to someone who’s been around for a long time. That’s why we saw the need for a new award that we can present when appropriate: Newcomer of the Year, says Daria Polishchuk, vice-president of the Norwegian Film Club Association.

Unfortunately, due to illness, the club was unable to be in Bergen to receive the award during the National Film Club Association meeting, but Danny Feng at Weird and Wonderful Cinema is very happy with the news, and says:

– Very pleasant! This means a lot to us.

Jury reasoning:

This movie club started during the pandemic. However, they quickly built up a permanent audience, creating an atmospheric gathering place where audiences can watch a great movie and chat informally about it afterwards.

Showcasing the absurd, the surreal, the bizarre and the unusual, this club takes great care to curate a rich and varied program with a wide variety of voices and expressions from all over the world.

They have showcased groundbreaking works of queer cinema, experimental classics, minimalist animation, expansive surrealism, and recent festival favorites that create important contemporary ripple effects but may not have received the attention they deserve.

They create powerful movie experiences that you might not choose on your own. Together with café Kruttverket and studio community Kroloftet, they create an emerging cultural environment in Oslo’s Etterstad.

We at the Norwegian Film Club Association are delighted to say that this year’s newcomer is quirky and wonderful cinema.”

new Horizons

“Our vision is to publish films that challenge the senses and the mind, with new perspectives on how the world is seen, and what the film medium is and can be. For example, we have shown silent films without a soundtrack, such as the short films by Maya Deren and Germaine Dulac, which most were not. People are to choose for themselves, but they have become powerful experiences for which we have had very good feedback.” The club said in its nomination for the award.

There they also run additional events alongside the regular programme, such as a Christmas party with free curry and a Ukrainian movie night. They’ve also focused on female filmmakers, including the feature debut of Anna Rose Holmer seizuresNina Menkes Ghost loveAgnieszka Smoczyńska, horror music temptationtime traveler Sally Potter Orlandoand Germaine Dulac’s surreal masterpiece Coincidences and the cleric From 1928.

The Film Club also has its own podcast: Unpleasant movies.

The award for Newcomer of the Year was awarded in Bergen during the days of the Bergems Film Club.

These are previous award winners from the Norwegian Film Club Association.