Dual Oscar nominee Eskil Vogt, a co-screenwriter on Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value and The Worst Person in the World has received backing for his next film as a director.
Vogt received a $1 million (NOK 10 Million) grant from the Norwegian Film Institute to go towards the production of Untitled, a psychological thriller about “art, power and the blurred boundaries between memory and truth.” Vogt will write and direct.
Untitled will be Vogt’s third feature as a director, following Blind (2014), and The Innocents (2021). He’s a two-time Oscar nominee, for writing on both Sentimental Value and The Worst Person in the World.
“Untitled is an ambitious project that builds on Eskil Vogt’s distinctive artistic vision,” said Kjersti Mo, CEO of the Norwegian Film Institute.” Eskil Vogt is a filmmaker with a strong artistic voice and a significant international profile, and with his third feature as a director, he continues to develop and challenge himself artistically.” Mo said the grant showed the institute’s commitment to “strengthening creators and their careers.”
Though best-known for his writing collaborations with Trier — the two childhood friends have written all of Trier’s films together — Vogt’s high-concept solo attempts have been well-received. Blind, which follows a writer whose loss of sight sharpens her creative imagination, premiered in Sundance and Berlin. The Innocents, a low-tech supernatural horror film about children with powers and violent tendencies, screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
Maria Ekerhovd and Lars Thomas Skare of Norway’s Mer Films, producers of Sentimental Value and the Oscar-nominated The Ugly Stepsister, are producing Untitled. The film’s total budget is pegged at $11 million. Mer Films’ latest, the Renate Reinsve-starrer Butterfly (2026), premiered at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival.
