News

Fredrikstad, October 24, 2026 We are delighted to share that 9 Million Colors, directed by Bára Anna, won the Nordic-Baltic Competition for Young Audiences at Fredrikstad Animation Festival on Saturday, October 24. The jury’s decision was unanimous. In their statement, they said: “This year’s winner. The jury was unanimous. The film is artistic, colourful, vulnerable and surprising. A wonderful rhythm, and playful. We love it. It is, quite simply, one to dig. The winner, and

Dovre, October 16, 2026 Trollfilm has been awarded up to NOK 400,000 from FORREGION Innlandet, administered by Innlandet County Municipality. The grant is for a one-year research pre-project, Digitally Controlled Multiplane Camera Stand for Stop-Motion Animation. Our research partner is Volda University College (Høgskulen i Volda), and this week we held the kick-off meeting that started the work. An old idea, a new machine The multiplane camera stand dates from the 1920s. Ani

Dovre, October 13, 2026 The Norwegian Film Institute has awarded NOK 750,000 in production support to A Foreign Heart (Et fremmed hjerte), the new animated short by Oscar-nominated director Anton Dyakov. The film was one of four shorts funded through NFI’s artistic assessment scheme this quarter. It is a big step for a project that has been on a long road. Some of you may remember it from last summer, when it was still called Gunpowder Man. A Foreign Heart is a 15-minute, ha

DOVRE, September 2026. Trollfilm and director Anita Killi have been invited to a career retrospective — DOK Leipzig's Animated Film Hommage — at the festival's 69th edition, running October 26 to November 1, 2026 in Leipzig, Germany. The tribute takes the shape of two film programs and a masterclass: one built from Anita's own films, the other gathering titles Trollfilm has been part of more broadly. Together they bring 13 films to Leipzig, spanning three decades of hand-craf

DOVRE, July 2026 – The program for this year's Turku Animated Film Festival (TAFF) is out, and we are glad to find both Anita and myself in it. From 26 to 30 August, we will be in Turku, Finland, for what promises to be a rich few days among people who care deeply about handmade animation. There is something fitting about being invited to Turku. It is a festival with a strong feel for the craft – for the physical, made-by-hand side of our art form – which happens to be the gr

DOVRE, March 2026 – There is good news to share from the mountains of Dovre. Anita Killi has been awarded a three-year working grant from Statens kunstnerstipend – the Norwegian Government Grants for Artists. It is one of the most prestigious forms of artistic support available in Norway, and for Anita, it means something very concrete: time. Time to write, to develop, and to make the films she has been carrying inside her for years. For those who have followed Trollfilm for

ANTERSELVA / DOVRE, February 18th, 2026 – Today, we at Trollfilm watched the Olympic biathlon relay with our hearts in our mouths – and our chests bursting with pride. Juni Arnekleiv, one of the athletes we have had the honour of sponsoring on her road to the top, was not originally set to compete here in Anterselva, in the Italian Alps. She had travelled to these Winter Olympics as a reserve – ready, prepared, but waiting on the sidelines. That is a role that demands a very

Trollfilm announces new production with Oscar-nominated director Anton Dyakov DOVRE, January 2026 – We are excited to announce that Black Box , a non-verbal, monochrome animated essay film directed by the acclaimed Russian-born animator Anton Dyakov , is almost ready for its official launch. The film marks a significant milestone for us – it is the first film for our new producer Claus Gladyszak at Trollfilm. A Quiet Requiem Black Box follows an elderly photographer as he

DOVRE, January 2026 – The exhibition Loud Silence by artist in residence Idun Isdrake has now come to an end. The works have been taken down, the gallery quiet once more. But the experience lives on – through images, through film, and through those who found their way to us during this brief window. Artists in Residence at Trollfilm: Dennis Inuk Aningaaq Møller and Idun Isdrake in front of one of Idun's glacier installations at the Loud Silence exhibition. Photo: Anita Killi

DOVRE, December. 2025 – Journalist and photographer Ida Kippersund Bringslid from NRK, Norway's national broadcaster, came to visit our studio here at Trollfilm. The result is a beautiful photo feature that I wanted to share with our international readers—though, as the article is in Norwegian, I thought I'd give you a brief summary of what it's about. The feature takes you inside our studio on Dovre, following the work we do here: making animated films about difficult topic

TOKYO, November 3rd – When the invitation arrived to lead a stop-motion workshop at Kineko International Film Festival for young Japanese children, Anita and Claus knew this was a challenge worth every ounce of preparation. And what a preparation it became. The weeks leading up to this day were filled with careful planning, creative problem-solving, and one very ambitious build: three portable multiplane stands, custom-designed and ready to travel across the world. A young a

When we completed " Mother Didn't Know " in 2020, the world had just shut down. The pandemic cast a shadow over film festivals and releases, and our quiet twelve-minute film slipped into the world with barely a whisper. It was a challenging time to share anything new. But sometimes, films have other plans. This autumn, we received a wonderful surprise: our film has been selected for the Norwegian Film Institute 's "Shorts for Children" – a collection of seven Norwegian short

Trollfilm and director Anton Dyakov receive vital support for "Gunpowder Man" Østnorsk Film Center has granted 400,000 NOK for the production of the short film "Gunpowder Man" (Norwegian working title: "Hjerte slår 1-2-3"), directed by Oscar-nominated Russian animator Anton Dyakov. The film will be produced by Trollfilm in collaboration with French production company Les films du Poisson Rouge, if we manage to fully finance the film. An Artist in Exile Anton Dyakov, known for

How can we convey something that almost defies expression? This question has quietly followed me throughout my work in animation — especially when trying to approach difficult and vulnerable themes. In Chapter 15 “Animated Traumas: The Films of Anita Killi”, published in the newly released book Radical Children’s Film and TV (Edinburgh University Press), animator and academic Ole Christoffer Haga¹ writes about three of my films – The Hedge of Thorns², Angry Man³ and Mother D

We're delighted to participate in MIFA 2025 as part of the Nordic Animation Pavilion at Stand D.05. Trollfilm looks forward to connecting with fellow professionals, exchanging ideas, and sharing our current creative projects. Annecy International Animation Film Market (MIFA) - taking place in Annecy from 10th to 13th June 2025. This year, we're presenting two projects we're working on: Christmas Survivors, our animated feature film in development, and a multiplan stand we've

Capture from the puppet animation musical "9 Million Colors" directed by Bára Anna (Czech Republic) On Sunday, June 8th, the film 9 Million Colors had its premiere at the renowned animation festival in Annecy. The Czech/German/Norwegian co-production, where Trollfilm served as co-producers, was even selected as the opening film that evening. This puppet aimation musical is directed by Bára Anna from the Czech Republic. The producers Maria Motovska and Lillian Løvseth have wor

Now just a couple of days before we are off to this years Le Festival du film d'animation in Annecy we got our hands on the new and updated version of our 32 pages Trollfilm pamphlet. The pamphflet is to be handed out at both the film festival, but also at the Nordic Animation Pavilion at Stand D.05. A snapshot of the little article about the animation film musical "9 Million Colors" - a Czech/German/Norwegian co-production to be screened at this years Annecy Film Festival. P

It was a bit into the Netflix film "Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron," which describes the 7-year-long process of making "The Boy and the Heron," when another "Boj" appeared behind the animation legend. Centrally placed, we can see the cover of Anita Killi's film "SINNA MANN”. As you can see, to the right of Myazaki's shoulder - the DVD cover of "Sinna mann". Anita herself states that "it's quite a feather in my cap that Miyazaki himself has my film standing on his shelf!". Spend

The local trolls around the mountains of Dovre have been very busy in recent months, spinning and weaving a new web for Trollfilm's 30th anniversary. Now it's finally out in the fresh mountain air and hopefully it will tolerate daylight better than the trolls themselves. The Trollfilm studio at the Killi farm on a shiny wintery day. The new web presents almost all the films Trollfilm has been involved in since Anita's humble beginnings in 1995. But the new pages don't just co

Recently in Dovre, animators Anita Killi and Natalia Malykhina Bratli met at Killi Studio to prepare for their upcoming educational tours with Den kulturelle skolesekken (DKS), centered around Killi's animated short film "The Hedge of Thorns". The original poster of the film "Tornehekken" - "The hedge of Thorns" (Trollfilm 2001) Created in 2001 during the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, "The Hedge of Thorns" is adapted from Elzbieta's book "Flon Flon et Musette." The fil