FkN Newsletter
June 2010
FkN News
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24.06.2010
Nordisk Panorama Registration Open
If
you haven't done so already, now is the time to mark your calendar for
the 21st edition of Nordisk Panorama Event, 24-29 September 2010.
Nordisk
Panorama Event gathers the Nordic short and documentary community for a
5-day feast comprising of industry events such as Nordisk Panorama
Market and Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Nordic Documentaries
together with quality films, seminars, workshops, and great parties.
The registration for Nordisk Panorama – 5 Cities Film Festival is open, so go to Nordisk Panorama’s website
allready today, get the early bird discount and join this prominent
community of international and Nordic short and documentary
representatives.
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24.06.2010
Peter Broderick at Nordisk Panorama
We are proud to announce that one of the most influential advocates of modern distribution, Peter Broderick, will attend Nordisk Panorama
in Bergen with a keynote speech, a workshop and as individual
consultant at Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries. Peter
Broderick is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on
alternative distribution strategy, and has also been a key player in the
growth of the ultra-low budget feature movement.
Read more on Nordisk Panorama’s website.
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24.06.2010
Nordisk Panorama Film Update
We’re
very close to the final selection of this year’s Nordisk Panorama
competition films. 520 short and documentary films have been submitted
to the festival and around 75 will be selected for the three competition
programmes: Nordic Short Films, Nordic Documentaries and New Nordic
Voices.
All submissions will receive notice of acceptance or
rejection no later than 15 July, and the selection will be presented in
the next edition of the FkN Newsletter.
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24.06.2010
Nordisk Forum Project Update
The deadline for submissions to Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries
has come and gone. We have received 72 applications for the 17th
Nordisk Forum for Co-Financing of Documentaries. The projects have been
submitted by producers from the Nordic and Baltic countries: 11 from
Denmark, 1 from Estonia, 1 from Faroe Islands, 9 from Finland, 5 from
Iceland, 19 from Norway, and 26 from Sweden.
The 17th Nordisk Forum takes place in Bergen, Norway 27-28 September in conjunction with Nordisk Panorama - 5 Cities Film Festival.
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24.06.2010
New Initiative at Nordisk Forum
This year, Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries
will kick off already on Sunday morning with a brand new Producers Meet
Producers event.
22 Nordic and Baltic production companies will get
the chance to present themselves and their ambitions to each other. The
presentations will be followed by an afternoon of Speed Dating designed
to facilitate the efforts to find suitable partners and form the bonds
necessary to access funds across borders.
The event also offers an
insight into the Nordic film institutes' rules and requirements as well
as a chance to meet this year's invited UK delegation, who will outline
the UK production landscape and introduce themselves.
Production
companies accepted for the Forum as either pitchers or observers can
sign up for the event, but priority will be given to pitching companies.
Only one participant per company can attend. In the event of too many
applicants, a selection will be made.
We are looking forward to many good matches being made!
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24.06.2010
International Guests in the FkN Video Library
During the summer, the following guests are visiting Filmkontakt Nord's Video Library at the office in Copenhagen:
Programmer,
Matthias Heeder from DOK Leipzig - International Festival for
Documentary and Animated Films, Germany,
Festival Coordinator Maria
Östbye and programmer Louise Bown from Uppsala International Short Film
Festival, Sweden
Artistic Director Bernard Boulad from Brest European Short Film Festival.
New Nordic and International Initiatives
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The First Scandinavian Screening in Copenhagen
For the first time since the days of the Nordic Screenings, a joint Nordic initiative promoting Scandinavian quality TV programmes took place in Copenhagen earlier this June.
Around 100 buyers attended the mini TV-market that was jointly hosted by DR Sales and SVT Sales in association with Nordisk Film TV, TrustNordisk, AB Svensk Filmindustri and Nordic World.
As a sales platform showcasing the latest TV products from Scandinavia, the screenings will respond to a growing need for content due to changes in the market. More and more digital TV platforms are created, and the Scandinavian Screening will be a new and needed sales and export opportunity in supplement to the annual MIPCOM and MIP TV.
The screenings will become an annual event where buyers can preview and screen film and TV programmes: Documentaries, Fiction, Nature, Arts, Children's programmes and Music.
For more information on the screenings 2010, click here.
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Financial Boost to Swedish Women Filmmakers
The Swedish Film Institute receives SEK 1.1 Million from the Ministry of Culture to support women filmmakers, says Filmnyheterna. The new funding scheme is an effort to further the career of young women filmmakers and to meet the 40/60 goal of the film agreement saying that 40% of the directors, screenwriters and producers obtaining funding from SFI should be women. The money is to be distributed in the regional film production structures and resource centres.
Prior to the
decision of an earmarked support to women, Swedish minister of culture,
Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, invited 27 film organisations and production
units to reflect on the issue of equal opportunities for women and men
in the Swedish film industry and to bring ideas and proposals to the
table of how to reach a fair balance.
Some of the answers from the organisations in short:
The Swedish Film & TV Producers’ Association
sees the general under financing of Swedish films as an obstacle for
reaching equal opportunities, because women are less willing to take
financial risks than men. The organisation recommends increased funding
possibilities of films and a greater focus on female talent.
On a
more general note, the producer’s association finds it crucial that
films should reflect our time from both female and male perspectives,
and they propose that the word “should” in the film agreement should be
exchanged with “must”.
The organisation Women in Film & TV
points out that old structures leading men to recommend other men to
working positions have to be changed, but that a 50-50 share of women
and men in directing, scriptwriting and producing can be reached.
Film i Väst
stresses that there is a need for better work conditions in film
production and that it is important that public and private bodies reach
a common view on the matter.
The complete compendium of answers from the film industry can be downloaded here.
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24.06.2010
+40’s Quit Film Career
According to a questionnaire carried out by the Norwegian Film Union,
most professionals quit their career in the film industry before the
age of 40, says Arbeidsmiljøsenteret, the Norwegian Centre for the
working environment. www.arbeidsmiljo.no
The lack of contracts, too much overtime and very little overtime pay are some of the reasons why this is happening.
The
Norwegian Film Union and a committee of representatives of the industry
criticize the production companies for not offering reasonable working
conditions.
The Norwegian Film and TV Producers’ Association
on the other hand, criticises the report for being too general and
based on undocumented allegations. The report states that the average
age of professionals in production is around 30 and that people rarely
stay in business longer than to the age of 40. The consequences are that
knowledge and skills will disappear.
In spite of the disagreements,
both The Norwegian Film Union and the Producers’ Organisation admit to
the need for more regulation. The producers, however, point out that
demands of higher wages can’t be met in the current situation of a
market that has little economic flexibility.
The Norwegian Film Union hopes for a solution before the end of the year.
Read more about the report here.
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24.06.2010
A Break From Financial Hurdles
Nine young filmmakers get to share SEK 540.000 to new projects. The funding initiative comes from the Helsingborg based BoostHbg that nurtures exceptional emerging talent within the film industry in Scania, the southern region of Sweden.
With the funding also comes consulting assistance all through the project development stage.
The
director of BoostHbg, Anna J Ljungmark, hopes that the funding will
take off the pressure of the financing hurdle and give more time to the
nine filmmakers to focus on their artistic development.
For more information on Boost’s funding schemes, click here.
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24.06.2010
Less Finnish Content on Finnish TV Channels
Domestically produced TV-programmes on the Finnish TV channels have dropped from a share of 50% in 2008 to 35% in 2009.
The
figures appear in the yearly overview of TV programmes published by the
Finnish Ministry of Communication. The study was made by Svenska Social- och kommunalhögskolan at the University in Helsinki.
The
study states that the amount of domestically produced TV programmes has
decreased on the ten national Finnish TV Channels that can be watched
without extra fees.
Most of the TV programmes produced in Finland are sports and entertainment.
More information on the report here.
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24.06.2010
Comedies Wanted
A humour film competition organised by YLE Fiktion and kulturen.fi in cooperation with Finland-Swedish Film Centre is open to short humorous films, sketches or funny videos.
Deadline
for submissions is 2 August. The competing films can be seen on
kulturen.fi and the winner - which is awarded with € 1.000 - and the
best films will be presented at the next film screenings at the
Finland-Swedish Film Centre.
Read more on the competition here.
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24.06.2010
Workshop Films On Mobiles and Facebook
Aarhus Film Workshop is taking an innovative step to expand their digital showcase of films produced at the workshop.
Now
it is possible to watch films on mobiles, Facebook as well as on the
workshop’s online cinema. To watch films you need to be able to go
online from your mobile phone. Then from the website you can chose
between films in the categories animation, documentary, experimental,
fiction and music.
The mobile feature is the most used external link and around 200 persons have signed in as Facebook friends.
“We’re
very satisfied with the new features, and the technique seems to work
well. We haven’t received any complaints from people who can’t access
the videos,” says Trine Hansen, responsible for events and online communication
at Aarhus Film Workshop. Podcasting is also in the pipeline, and
technically Aarhus Film workshop is ready, but the question of rights
has yet to be solved before a launch.
Aarhus Film Workshop is a
dynamic association and production house for people who wish to engage
in the visual media of film and video.
Check out the site here.
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24.06.2010
New Association Lobbies To Air
More Docs
The new international lobbying group Documentary Distributors' Association, (DDA), that
announced itself at Hot Docs earlier this year, launched officially at
the Sunny
Side of the Doc this June.
DDA aims to lobby for more
documentaries on public service broadcasters, to improve broadcast
funding and to open up new markets across other media.
The
association is founded by Mercury Media CEO Tim Sparke and Mercury
Chairman Simon Shaps. According to Sparke, factual programmes and
factual entertainment that can provide bigger ratings are pushing
documentaries to the margins. The DDA wants to fight this tendency and
campaign for more documentary slots on public service broadcasters.
The
first official DDA meeting took place at the Sunny Side of the Doc on
22 June.
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24.06.2010
Vimeo Launches Video Festival
A
New online video festival and awards event to honour the best of
creative online video has been announced by the video-hosting site Vimeo.
The
Vimeo Festival and Awards invites video creators throughout the world
to submit their original and creative videos in a variety of categories,
among others Documentary, Experimental and Animation.
The awards will be open to anyone who has premiered their work online between 3 June, 2008 and 30 July, on any online platform.
A
jury including names like David Lynch and Morgan Spurlock, will be
judging the videos, and during a two-day festival in October in New
York, the best online video will be screened to an audience. The winner
of the Vimeo Award wins a grant of U.S. ,000.00 for the development of a
new video work.
The Vimeo Awards is open for submissions 31 until July.
Read more about the festival and regulations on the site.
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24.06.2010
www.nfi.no New Image
Norwegian Film Institute is in the process of redesigning their website.
The ambition is to develop the website profile and create more pages.
Among
the new features are new pages on NFI courses and seminars for the
industry and more information on funding schemes and how to apply.
All
activities in Filmens Hus, (seat of the Norwegian Film Institute), will
be available on the website as well as information on the circulation
of Norwegian films on festivals and awards.
”Learn about film" will
be the main portal for NFI’s initiatives towards children and youth and a
new ”Buy Film” button presenting the NFI titles will be ready by
autumn.
For more information, read here.
