Tromsø: Top of the World Film Fest

By Robert Waite

Tromsø, Norway –

It began with a poster. It was a pre-COVID summer. We were overnighting in Tromsø, Norway, a coastal city of about 52,000 inhabitants located 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

“Tromsø International Film Festival. Frozen Land. Moving Pictures,” it read. The dates were in mid-January.

My partner was instantly interested, but I was less sure. While I have an abiding interest in cinema and write frequently on travel, often to remote locations, Norway? In the dead of winter? To watch films?

But the more I thought about it, the more enticing the prospect became. For one thing, film festivals attract a huge number of visitors. After a rather small beginning in Mussolini-era Venice in 1932, festivals have since sprung up virtually everywhere on the planet. By latest post-pandemic count there are about 12,000.

The Toronto Film Festival, the largest, annually attracts 400,000 film… Continue reading →