FkN Newsletter
January 2009
FkN News
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In the spring, FkN once again promotes recent documentary films from all of the Nordic countries to a broad segment of international buyers at Europe’s major tv-markets MIPDOC and MIP-TV taking place 28 March – 3 April in Cannes, France.
The films are presented in a special flyer, distributed during the market, and FkN will meet the interested TV-buyers and distributors for further information. After the market, FkN will provide the producers with individual reports on meetings and screenings, for the producers to follow up on accordingly.
The deadline for submissions of films has been extended to 28 January.
To learn more about the conditions for participation, read here or contact Katrine Kiilgaard at +45 33115152 or katrine@filmkontakt.com.
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In the beginning of February, FkN’s Promotion & Marketing Manager, Katrine Kiilgaard, will attend the Short Film Market at the world's largest International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Besides promoting recent Nordic short films as well as Nordisk Panorama – 5 Cities Film Festival to an ever expanding network of professionals, FkN is present in Clermont-Ferrand to highlight the new service Nordisk Panorama Market Online.
Launched in 2007 as a test version, NPM Online took off in 2008 – now offering more than 300 current films and expanding yearly by some 300 new Nordic shorts and docs. The digital promotional service is specifically aimed at international tv-buyers, distributors, sales agents, film festivals and other curators on the look-out for Nordic high quality content. Thus, registered professionals can keep abreast with the latest and greatest from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and screen full-length films at their own convenience around the clock.
To learn more and get a login as an international professional, or to post a film as a Nordic filmmaker, contact Jing Haase at +45 3311 5152 or film@filmkontakt.com.
To set up a meeting with Katrine Kiilgaard in Clermont-Ferrand 2-4 February, contact her at the above number or katrine@filmkontakt.com.
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FkN’s director, Karin Johansson-Mex, will be in Belgrade 14-15 February to attend the 6th Nordisk Panorama, a festival dedicated to Nordic shorts and documentaries organized by the BalkanKult Foundation in the Cultural Center of Belgrade.
The films presented at the Belgrade festival are always selected from the preceding Nordisk Panorama – 5 Cities Film Festival, last held in Malmö, Sweden 26 September – 1 October 2008. The programme for this year’s edition of the Belgrade Nordisk Panorama is the largest ever, consisting of a total of 37 films. Also, Nordic filmmakers and experts are invited to the festival as special guests.
For the first time the festival will have side activities in Serbia, and besides the main cinema programme, two professional workshops will be held for screenwriters and filmmakers from the two regions.
Every year approx. 3500 people visit Nordisk Panorama in Belgrade, and after the screenings here, additional screenings are organized in more than 20 cities througout Serbia and Bosnia and Hercegovina.
To set up a meeting with Karin Johansson-Mex in Belgrade, contact her at +45 3311 5152 or karin@filmkontakt.com.
Focus: New Nordic and International Initiatives
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The Danish Film Institute and Danish broadcaster TV2 have lauched a number of short films for youth - for distribution on mobile phones and on the Internet. All films test the possibilities and the challenges of making films for the internet and the mobile phone and the collaborating partners hope that the tweenies will find them interesting and will forward them to friends via profiles on the Internet and mobile phones.
The films can be seen on teddy.tv2.dk/minifilm and at DFI Pressroom - and, thanks to a cooperation with three telephone companies (TDC, Telia and 3), on mobile phones without extra costs for the kids (and their parents!).
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Norwave is the name of a new festival aimed at bringing the international film industry to the Norwegian shores and festival films to the ports of call. The floating festival, on Hurtigruten (a Norwegian cruise line) from Trondheim to Honningsvåg or even Kirkenes, is made possible through a cooperation between the Norwegian Minister of Culture Trond Giske, Kosmorama director Ola Lund Renolen and Italian partners. The festival will be organised as an independent unit in a cooperation between the film festivals in Tromsø, Trondheim and Capalbio in Tuscany, Italy, where the initiative comes from. During the first years, focus will probably be on Italy and Tuscany, but the plan is to have different partners each year, such as France, Germany, India, China and the USA. The festival aims at setting sails this September.
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The address is the same, but the look is different. Swedish Film Institute has given www.sfi.se a facelift, aiming to make it easier for the user to navigate on the site. At the same time, the Swedish Film Database has become a part of www.sfi.se, making it possible to find information about 60,000 Swedish and international films, just as the statistics tool will provide the user with information about all films running in Swedish cinemas. Furthermore, there's been an increase in the English languaged information, just like the site has been adjusted to fit the mobile phone.
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In October this year Danish public broadcaster DR launches a new HD channel, thereby being the first to bring a 'free-to-air' HD channel to the Danish viewers. The content of the new channel is still not settled, but DR intends to show a number of programs that has already been produced in HD quality. This goes for a.o. DRs own drama production, satire and international documentaries.
After a turbulent year with financial problems for the other Danish public service channel TV2, the Danish government and the political parties behind the media political agreement have now agreed on a financial restructuring plan for TV2. Main issues in the plan are the sale of DRs and TV2s frequency and a subscription fee for TV2 as of 2012. To read the agreement (in Danish only), click here.
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Film:TREFF is a monthly meeting place for film professionals in Oslo. Film:TREFF is a social meet-and-mingle, created to make new contacts and broaden networks, taking place the first Tuesday of every month. Important organisations like Norwegian Film Institute, Norwegian Film Worker's Association, Norwegian Actor's Equity Association and Filmere - creative forum for new filmmakers show their support. More than 200 attended the first gathering on 13 January, where a.o. Norsk Filmbok 2009, a contact directory of the Norwegian film industry, was launched. Read more about Film:TREFF here.
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The Swedish Film Institute (SFI) has increased its support to the Swedish Film Festivals with one million SEK to further strengthen the availability of quality films for the Swedish audience. This constitutes a 41% increase of the support compared to last year. The festival that gets the largest raise in support is Gothenburg International Film Festival, but also the support to Stockholm's Film Festival, BUFF, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Tempo Documentary Film Festival, The Bergman Week and International Female Film Festival has increased. Furthermore, SFI supports the festivals CinemAfrica, Eksjö Animation Festival and Tjugo5 for the first time. In total, SFI supports the Swedish festivals with 3,588,000 SEK.
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South Norwegian Film Centre and Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival have initiated a national script competition, inviting script writers to submit scripts for short films directed at children and youth. The initiative is an answer to The Norwegian Film Institute's wish for an increased focus on children's films, and the initiators hope, that at least one new film will be realised. The winner of the competition will be announced at Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival, taking place 27 April-3 May and the award consists of 200,000 NOK. Deadline for entries is 1 March. Read more about Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival and the competition here.
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A new script writing school has seen the day of light in Denmark in 2009. Bring an idea and leave with a script, is the mantra of the school, that offers a 23 weeks long course, where professionals, such as leading script writers from the Danish film and theater world, teach the students the many aspects of script writing. Behind the initiative are FilmFyn, Baggårdsteatret, Station Next Sydfyn and Ryslinge Højskole - all regional cultural institutions. To read more, see the school's website.
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At this year's Berlinale, there's an increased focus on documentary films. Meet the Docs is a new initiative from the European Film Market, the film trade fair integrated into the Berlinale, aiming to add a service to its documentary attendees and work as a meeting point for the documentary industry. Meet the Docs will facilitate the market participants with match making, networking and market information. This special market section will be established in collaboration with European Documentary Network (EDN) and will serve as a connecting platform for all documentary sellers, buyers, producers and diretors offering a meeting place and a general information service dedicated to documentary. The Berlinale takes place 5-15 February. You can read more about the Berlinale and the European Film Market here.
