Fritt Ord-supported documentary nominated for Oscars

February 8 2022

The award-winning animated film FLEE has been nominated for Oscars in the categories for Best International Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature Film and Best International Feature Film. The film has already won a numerous awards at different film festivals, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Sundance Film Festival and the Nordic Council’s Film Prize in 2021.

FLEE is an international co-production that combines animation, archive materials and the voices of real people to tell about the 36-year-old Danish-Afghan Amin, a resident of Copenhagen who lives a seemingly happy and successful life. However, Amin had never told a soul the story of his childhood in Kabul in the 1980s, or about how he fled from Afghanistan to Denmark as a child. This is a story that he, as a child, was told to keep secret, so he never shared it with anyone, not even with those closest to him.

FLEE

The film is based on conversations between Amin and his childhood friend Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of the film.
FLEE was produced by Monica Hellström of Sweden at Final Cut For Real, in cooperation with Maria Ekerhovd of Norway at Mer Film.

Fritt Ord has provided a total of NOK 200 000 for the development and co-production of the film.

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.