We sat down with Aurora Nossen, a director and actress moving between Oslo and London. We talked about her latest short The Burden of Manhood and about telling stories that speak to a wide audience, while staying truthful to your vision.

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Aurora Nossen, a director and actress working across film and television in Oslo and London. I trained as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and originally studied architecture, a background that continues to influence my visual approach to storytelling.

I’m passionate about combining strong performances with a precise cinematic language, and I’m fascinated by how cinematography, writing, production design, costume and performance work together to shape a story. Over the past years, I’ve directed short films that have screened at festivals including The Norwegian Short Film Festival, TIFF and Nordisk Panorama, worked as an assistant director on film and television productions, and built experience both behind and in front of the camera.

I’m currently developing my first feature film through the Norwegian Film Institute’s talent development prgramme NEO.

What is the latest project you worked on that you are proud of?

I really enjoy all of the projects I am working on. But most recently as a director I completed a new short film called “The Burden of Manhood” which is currently being sent around to film festivals. The film was funded by the NFI and Fond for Lyd og Bilde.

As an actress I starred in The Commoner on Amazon Prime and Tiltalt on NRK, and they were both really exciting experiences that felt very rewarding to me. I’ve also done motion capture and facial capture from the video game Dune: Awakening.

What is the most important thing you focus on as a director/actress?

I think it is important to be truthful to yourself and your vision. I like to choose the genres of my films depending on the story that I want to tell. Sometimes it’s comedy, and sometimes it’s drama. I often find inspiration from my own life. I like to make movies that have the potential to attract a larger audience. It might make me more commercial, but to tell stories that can speak to a number of people is what drew me to movies in the first place.

Who in the nordics should get the spotlight next, and why?

Carl Georg Rødtsen (He won at Grimstad a few years back and is also working on his feature film debut)

CONTACT:

Website / Instagram / IMDB

Poster of short film mentioned:

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We can see that Carl Georg Rødtsen is a name to remember since he has been mentioned multiple times now ;)

Read the spotlight of Carl Georg here.