Northern Script 2021 Master classes were held 15 – 20th of November and they were a real success. Out of 34 scripts, 6 final scripts from Finland, Sweden and Norway were selected to be part of Northern Script 2021 finals. This year we did something out of the ordinary as all the workshop leaders were from different Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden & Norway). This benefitted all our finalists as they were getting not one but three different Nordic perspectives towards scriptwriting.
The 1st workshop by Swedish Dragan Mitic focused on giving and getting feedback. The 2nd workshop by Finnish Anna Brotkin focused on how to write interesting and multifaceted characters that make the audience believe in your story. The 3rd workshop by Norwegian Thomas Wangsmo focused on building cinematic worlds and with the greater idea of what kind of film one is making (genre- or otherwise), and how to present that both to producers, financiers and the audience.
Besides the workshops the finalists also met online before the workshops for a casual talk. Two previous finalists (Mikko Peltotupa & Mattias Staaf) also joined to talk about their past experiences. After the casual talk the finalists got to see an animation film ‘The Ape Star’. On our final day (20th of November) the finalists got to chill out and enjoy an enchanting talk by a Swedish scriptwriter Janne Vierth, whose film ‘The Ape Star’ was in the program of this year’s Oulu International Children’s and Youth Film festival. In his guest talk Janne emphasized the importance of writing from your heart and got the finalists to believe in themself, in their own scripts and finding their own voice.
In the afternoon all the finalists also got an individual feedback session by our judges (Paula Mononen & Mikko Peltotupa). After the detailed analysis with each and every one of our finalists, the judges announced Northern Script 2021 winner.
The winner of Northern Script 2021 is Swedish Idil Mohamud Gurey with her script ‘Fish out of water’. Congratulations Idil!!!
Besides winning the Northern Script competition, Idil will be welcomed to join NUFF short Film Festival for young filmmakers in Tromsø June 2022. In addition Idil will get one free mentoring session by an award winning Cannes Film producer Jussi Rantamäki from Aamu Film Company.
All the finalists celebrated Idil with the bottom of their heart for her victory this year. However, needless to say, in the eyes of the whole Northern Script production team, all the finalists are winners in their own right. According to our judges the level of scriptwriting 2021 was better than ever. What a great bunch of finalists we had this year. Can’t wait for next year’s Northern Script event!