Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2015: #77. Sara Johnsen’s Framing Mom

Published on January 6, 2015

Framing Mom

Director: Sara Johnsen // Writer: Sara Johnsen

Norwegian director Sara Johnsen has yet to secure US distribution for her previous three features, including her award winning debut Kissed By Winter (2005), Upperdog (2009), and the enigmatic All That Matters Is Past (2012), which unfortunately didn’t find the critical praise it was worthy of. Offbeat and strange, it’s easy to see why her cinema has had a difficult time securing an international audience, so we’re hoping her next feature, Framing Mom, breaks out of this cycle. This is about the story of Unn Tove, a TV journalist who marries the wrong man and is unfaithful to him at their own wedding. At the same time, a newborn baby, Rose Marie, is left in a restaurant bathroom. Their lives become intertwined, and 16 years later, Unn Tove and Rose Marie begin a search for the young girl’s biological parents

Cast: Tuva Novotny

Producers: 4 ½ Fiksjon’s Turid Oversveen (The Sleepwalker), Nimbus Film, The Match Factory

U.S. Distributor: Rights available

Release Date: Considering Johnsen is still securing funding, we’re predicting filming will happen sometime in early 2015, which would perhaps allow Johnsen to premiere in Venice or even Toronto, where she premiered All That Matters is Past.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.