FkN Newsletter

December 2009

FkN News

Remember the New Submission Deadlines for Nordisk Panorama! 
Don't forget that we have changed the 2010 submission deadline for Nordisk Panorama and Filmkontakt Nord! Instead of one deadline for all films on 15 May there will be two deadlines: The first deadline is 15 February for films made in 2009 and the second deadline remains on 15 May, but will only be for films completed after 1 January 2010.

So if your film is already finished, submit it here today and avoid the February rush!

The Office is Closed over Christmas and New Year 
The Filmkontakt Nord office closes 18 December for the holidays but we will be back and ready for a new exciting year of Nordic short and documentary films on 4 January 2010.

Focus: New Nordic and International Initiatives

Glimz Strengthens Focus as Film Distributor and Signs Distribution Deal with Headweb 
The Nordic short film distributor Glimz AB closes the film rental for consumers on its online service glimz.net to strengthen its focus as film distributor. However, it will still be possible for logged-in clients to watch all films without costs. Film producers can also permit glimz.net to show their films online to consumers free of charge.

Furthermore consumers will still be able to rent many of the original glimz.net titles online, since Glimz has signed a distribution deal with headweb.com for distribution of short films. Headweb is running a sister site called kortfilmer.nu. Initially, 50 films from the Glimz project Vision Out/In have been selected and made available on this site. Together, Glimz and Headweb will work to make quality short film widely available. At kortfilmer.nu, the films are available to rent for less than 1 €. In the future, the intention is to heavily increase the number of titles from Glimz's portfolio of more than 800 titles.

New Structure at DR 
A new organisation structure at Danish public broadcaster DR is made to strengthen in-house productions, improve internal relations within the organisation, speed up decision-making and reduce the number of executives. The number of executives will be reduced from around 200 to 152 when the changes have been implemented.

The biggest change is the replacement of DR Programredaktionen (editorial board) by four new editorial units: DR NYHEDER (news production for TV and radio), DR DANMARK (DR regional production plus children and youth programmes and lifestyle), DR OPLYSNING (documentary, science, debates, education) and DR KULTUR (drama, music, literature and arts). Read more about the new structure (in Danish only) here.

New Film Award in Göteborg 
Göteborg International Film festival has yet again initiated a new award: The Dragon Award New Talent. It is a web based, international short film award and will be presented together with the other 17 Dragon Awards at the Dragon Awards-gala on 6 February. Everyone can enter the competition by uploading their film, as long as it's max 10 minutes and has the accepted formats. Visitors to the website can rank the submitted films and a jury will choose the winner among the top 10 rated films. Deadline for submission is 10 January. To read more about the award, how to submit and vote, and to see the jury, click here.

Report on Swedish Documentaries 
In a report commissioned by the Swedish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond's documentary consultant and former FkN Director Karolina Lidin has drawn a series of recommendations on how to strengthen the Swedish documentary filmmaking sector which despite its creative boom and international recognition shows serious economic weaknesses.

Lidin bases her report on a meticulous analysis of the production, financing and distribution of 31 Swedish documentaries released theatrically in Sweden between 2003 and 2007. Some of the 21 points, remarks and recommendations in the report are:

• Too many companies and filmmakers make too few films just as almost half of the fims were made by directors who also acted as producers.
• Swedish documentary films are underfinanced, compared to the rest of Europe, and producers themselves take too many financial risks.
• Too many films have a cinema release despite the lack of an audience and the long hold-back periods don't result in bigger audiences.
• There is a need for new distribution strategies.
• The future though is starting to look brighter. There is a tendency towards stonger production companies with more productions in the making.

You can find the full report (in Swedish only) here.

Extra Funds to Nordisk Film & TV Fond 
Within the framework of its globalisation strategy for culture, the Nordic Council of Ministers has granted Nordisk Film & TV Fond an extra 7 million DKK for the three upcoming years (2010-2012). The extra funding from the Nordic Council's Globalization Pool was granted based on an overall strategy submitted by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The main objective is to help Nordic film and television productions increase their commercial potential and presence on the international marketplace and hence spread the awareness of the Nordic region and its culture. The extra funding will be earmarked towards the theatrical and VoD distribution of Nordic films, documentaries and TV dramas on the global market, and the development of talents on both sides of the camera, through master-classes with key international speakers.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond will announce further details on its globalization strategy for the three upcoming years early 2010.

EDN launches new Website 
European Documentary Network, EDN, has launched a new version of their website with a variety of tools and improved features, among others:

• The EDN Financing Guide in a searchable version
• The EDN Online Forum featuring sessions with leading international financiers and industry professionals
  
• Doc Events with a comprehensive overview of funding deadlines, markets, pitching sessions, seminars and other events
• News which are daily updated with the latest from the international documentary scene
• Member to member tools for international networking
• A festival database for locating festivals relevant for your film

All these features come in a new design with an easy to navigate structure. Check out the new EDN site on www.edn.dk.

Asian Side of the Doc 
The first edition of Asian Side of the Doc will take place in Hong Kong 22-25 March 2010. Behind the event is the international documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc, that will bring its 20 years of network experience and the most important European descision makers and producers to Asia.

Asian Side of the Doc is aimed to develop co-productions between Asia Pacific and Europe in the field of documentary, factual programming and cross-media platforms. It will be a regular meeting event for European and Asian Pacific commissioning editors and producers to share their experiences, build up a strong network and understand the different possibilities and opportunities to co-finance with Asia. During the three-day event, 150 professionals will participate in panel discussions, pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings and much more.

In the next three years, Asian Side of the Doc is going to take place in different major Asian cities: After Hong Kong in 2010, it will move to Seoul in 2011 and Singapore in 2012. To read more, see the Sunny Side of the Doc website.

New Content on Reelisor 
Documentary Campus and reelisor has intensified their collaboration with the goal to make high-quality content available on the website. New in the Knowledge Section of the website is 12 exclusive interviews with programmers and TV specialists form across the globe, conducted during the 2nd and 3rd Documentary Campus Open Training Session in Manchester and Chania 2009.

The Interview Section also features Going to the Market by Fernanda Rossi. This new webisode series is a short review of the key doc markets around the world, helping filmmakers to decide where to go and why. The first webisode, about Sheffield, is online now.

On the website you can also download transcripts of Documentary Campus events and see the Documentary Campus Masterschool 2009 trailers.