FkN Newsletter
February 2014
Nordisk Panorama News
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27.02.2014
Nordisk Panorama Visits Tempo Documentary Festival
Nordisk Panorama is strongly represented at Tempo Documentary Festival in Stockholm, Sweden, 4-9 March. Programme Manager Lisa Nyed is there together with Forum Manager Christina Jul Gregersen, who will be giving individual project consultation about Nordic and international financing to selected projects at NP Nomadic Office.
Thursday 6 March at 17:00 Nordisk Panorama invites guests at the festival to join us for a drink and get the latest updates on Nordisk Panorama at Bar Brooklyn, Debaser Strand.
To set up a meeting with Christina, send her an email or reach her at +45 6131 8539.
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27.02.2014
NP Town Hall & Vodka Hour at Tampere Film Festival
Filmkontakt Nord will host the third Nordisk Panorama Town Hall during Tampere Film Festival, Finland, 5-9 March. The NP Town Hall gathers key industry stakeholders for a Nordic forum addressing current issues in the short and documentary film industry.
The third NP Town Hall is hosted by Vice Chairman of the FkN board Sami Jahnukainen and the theme for discussion will be "The Oscar nomination: what, how, who, when again, and what does it matter?". On the panel we have representatives from the production company of the Oscar nominated Finnish short, Tuffi Films, and the Finnish Film Foundation. The discussion will be moderated by Ulla Simonen.
The NP Town Hall takes place at Werstas Auditorium, Väinö Linnan aukio 8, Friday 7 March at 13:30 and will be followed by our infamous Nordic Vodka Hour at 16:00. Join Market Manager Jing Haase and Sami Jahnukainen for a drink at The Festival Centre, Satakunnankatu 18, Siperia, Finlayson Area.
Market Manager Jing Haase is in Tampere 5-9 March to be part of the festival's national jury and will also moderate the session "Who Would Buy This?" on Saturday 8 March. To set up a meeting with Jing, send her an email or contact her at +45 3132 0212.
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27.02.2014
Get a Big Discount for Hot Docs by Joining the Nordic Delegation
Planning to go to Hot Docs this year? Filmkontakt Nord is coordinating the Nordic delegation to Hot Docs 2014, offering delegation members access to North America's premier documentary festival at a 25% discount incl. special benefits for delegation members. Members of the Nordic delegation will get an All Access Pass at only CAD 600 ex. tax (regular price CAD 845)!
Sign up for the Nordic delegation no later than 14 March by sending an email to christina@filmkontakt.com to get the special delegation discount on your All Access Pass. Click here to read more about the Nordic delegation to Hot Docs 2014.
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27.02.2014
Nordisk Panorama Director Attends The Financing Forum for Kids Content
Director Katrine Kiilgaard will be present at The Financing Forum for Kids Content in Malmö, Sweden, 11-13 March. To set up a meeting with Katrine, send her an email or call her at +45 2042 4529.
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27.02.2014
Our Market Manager Shows Her Favorite Shorts in Regensburg
Nordisk Panorama Market Manager Jing Haase visits the International Short Film Week Regensburg 20-23 March to present a selection of her favorite short films in the special programme Affairs of the Heart Friday 21 March at 21:00. Check out the programme here.
To set up a meeting with Jing, send her an email or contact her at +45 3132 0212.
New Nordic and International Initiatives
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27.02.2014
Hot Docs Highlights Works from Denmark
The Canadian international documentary film festival, Hot Docs will showcase recent works from Denmark in this year's "Made In" program.
Each year the Made In program celebrates a country or region's contribution to documentary, offering revealing glimpses into the social, political, economic and cultural issues facing those societies. This year the Made In Denmark program will highlight the high calibre of filmmaking in the Danish documentary community.
"Denmark has been at the forefront of high-quality documentary filmmaking, consistently pushing the boundaries of the art form and elevating the calibre of style, substance and approach," says Hot Docs' director of programming Charlotte Cook. "Danish films have always been huge audience favourites at the Festival, and so it's wonderful to have the opportunity to highlight and celebrate them this year."
Film titles will be announced in March.
Film professionals from Denmark and the Nordic countries who are going to Hot Docs, can sign up for Filmkontakt Nord's Nordic delegation by 14 March to get access at a 25% discount with special benefits for delegation members.
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27.02.2014
Three Danish Docs to be Screened on POV in 2014
This year no less than three Danish documentaries will be screened on U.S. public television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films, the award-winning series POV on public broadcaster PBS.
Dance for Me directed by Katrine Philp and produced by Lise Saxtrup, Klassefilm ApS will broadcast on 21 July at 10pm, while the Oscar nominated The Act of Killing directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen, Final Cut for Real will broadcast in the fall of 2014. Finally on 18 August, POV will broadcast Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours who took home the prize for Best New Nordic Voice at Nordisk Panorama 2013 where The Act of Killing also won the award for Best Nordic Documentary.
According to POV Executive Director & Producer Simon Kilmurry this means that 20% of the POV films this year are Nordic. Previous Nordic titles screened on POV are Armadillo by Janus Metz (DK), Steam of Life by Joonas Berghäll (FI) and Tintin and I by Anders Østergaard (DK).
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27.02.2014
New Workshop to Connect Nordic Producers with Central European Stories
The half-year rough cut workshop DOK.Incubator introduces DOK.Restart, a new platform, aiming to connect central European filmmakers with producers from Norway and Iceland through an intensive 4-days workshop for nearly finished Polish films - and observers from the Nordic countries, searching for strong stories from the region.
Norwegian and Icelandic producers can join the workshop DOK.Restart and scout for possible co-production and distribution partnerships with the most interesting Polish projects, close to their release.
All participants will benefit from the know-how of internationally recognized lecturers like Sigrid Dyekjær (DK), producer of the award-winning The Monastery, Freddy Neumann (DK), PR and marketing expert in charge of most well known Danish documentaries, and leading European editors, e.g. Claudio Hughes (FR), editor of the IDFA winning Stranded.
The DOK.Restart workshop takes place parallel to the DOK.Incubator workshop in Krakow, Poland, 25-29 May 2014.
For producers interested in Polish documentaries for 2015, the DOK.Restart deadline is 11 April. Apply here.
For Nordic projects in rough cut stage the deadline to apply for the half-year individual mentoring workshop DOK.Incubator is coming up on Monday 3 March. Read more about DOK.Incubator here.
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27.02.2014
TIFF Introduces International Short Film Programme
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced a programme of international short films, Short Cuts International, that will premiere at the 2014 festival.
"With new technologies and a constant influx of new talent, short filmmaking is flourishing," says Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of TIFF. "As TIFF expands its global reach, we want to bring some of the world's finest short films to the audience, industry and media that gather in Toronto every year."
Selected international shorts will screen in five curated programmes this September. The festival's Short Cuts International screenings will kick off a new monthly shorts programme that will run year-round at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Shane Smith, TIFF's Director of Special Projects, will oversee Short Cuts International. Programmers will be announced in the coming months.
The festival is currently accepting film submissions for all film programmes with an early-bird deadline of 2 May and a late deadline of 30 May. Canadian short films will continue to be programmed in the Short Cuts Canada programme.
The 39th Toronto International Film Festival runs 4-14 September 2014.
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27.02.2014
NFTF Launches Four New Distribution Support Initiatives
Nordisk Film & TV Fond has launched four new distribution support projects with an extra budget of more than NOK 3.5m for a trial period of one year. The focus is on supporting Nordic distributors, developing marketing experts and Nordic film roadshows for exhibitors, initiatives specifically designed to improve the circulation of Nordic films across the Nordic region and to respond to the fast changing nature of distribution in the digital world.
These new measures are the result of a review of the Fund's overall Distribution Support and consultations with the industry. They come on top of the existing two distribution schemes: the Single Distribution Support (with a budget of NOK 3.5 million per year) and Nordic High Five slate support.
Petri Kemppinen, CEO of Nordisk Film & TV Fond says: "With an extra NOK 3.5 million investment for 2014, the Fund is doubling its support for distribution and clearly demonstrates its desire to adapt to the rapid changes in the market. As a pan-Nordic funding body, our responsibility is to boost audience choice and availability of Nordic films across platforms and national borders in the Nordic region."
The four new distribution initiatives are:
1/ Digital Distribution Support
The aim of the new strategic programme is to improve the circulation of Nordic Films by reaching audiences through different platforms. The films supported can run on digital platforms (VoD, mobile phones etc) that serve either as an addition to, or as an alternative to the traditional cinema release and broadcast television. Candidates must have rights to the Nordic films for which they are applying and a detailed release plan on digital platforms. The budget for the one year trial period of the Digital Distribution Support is NOK 2 million. The support is not subject to reimbursement.
2/ Recruited Audience Screening Support
The purpose is to allow Nordic distributors to assess market potential of non-national Nordic films they are considering licensing with a 'mini' Recruited Audience Screening (with funds dedicated to screening costs and if necessary local subtitling) via a single grant support of a maximum NOK 40,000. The support is not subject to reimbursement.
3/ Nordic Film Marketing Support
This new scheme has been specifically designed to help distributors hire and develop marketing specialists whose task would be to work exclusively on the theatrical and/or VOD release of 1 to 3 Nordic films for up to a one year period, with focus on social media and younger audiences. The Nordic Film Marketing Support is intended to complement the Fund's existing Single Project Support and High Five slate support. The budget for the one year trial period of the Nordic Film Marketing Support is NOK 1 million.
4/ Nordic Film Promotion for Exhibitors
Exhibitors decide what films are going to play in cinemas. It is therefore essential to increase their awareness of non-national Nordic films and talents. As part of the 'Nordic Film Promotion for Exhibitors' initiative, the Fund will attend distributors/exhibitors trade conventions in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and present a show-reel of upcoming Nordic films, where possible in the presence of Nordic talents.
Applications for Digital Distribution, Recruited Audience Screening and Nordic Film Marketing Support will be open early March when the guidelines are finalised and published.
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27.02.2014
Nordic Game Focus on Storytellers
Nordic Game invites storytellers across genres to the workshop "Prototyping visual storytelling", teaming up with Unity Technologies, one of the huge success stories of the Nordic game community. Unity is a development engine for easy and affordable creation of interactive 3D and 2D content and multiplatform publishing.
This is in line with the efforts of the transmedia meet-up and hackathon at Nordisk Panorama 2013, investigating new possibilities for storytelling and user engagement on digital platforms and connecting filmmakers, digital concept developers and game designers to work together.
The Nordic Game workshop will demonstrate how you can use the Unity game engine for creative work across industries, giving storytellers the opportunity to learn how to bring their stories to life: visualizing and developing their projects from the idea phase.
During the workshop, participants will get an introduction to the core features of Unity, with examples from the use of Unity in film productions. The workshop will start with indie case studies by game developer Tim Garbos (Kanako), talking about his work on prototyping film and interactive ideas, as well as his work on the Danish interactive film Skammekrogen.
At workstations in the workshop venue, participants will have a chance to try for themselves the different techniques demonstrated in the workshop.
The workshop takes place at the first day of the Nordic Game conference, 21 May 13:00-17:00 and costs 500 SEK. Register for the workshop and get a special deal for the whole Nordic Game conference pass. Also, register for the Nordic Game meet-up and Indie Night to meet Unity developers and to play Indie games. More information about Unity and the workshop here.
