Nordisk Panorama News
March 2014
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27.03.2014
Join the Nordic Delegation to Sheffield Doc/Fest & Get a Discount
We are once again arranging the Nordic delegation to Sheffield Doc/Fest. Join the Nordic delegation to get value-for-money access to UK’s premier documentary marketplace, festival and conference, taking place 7-12 June 2014! Read more here.
Reduced rate delegate pass: GBP 199 + VAT
Special mentorship pass: GBP 399 + VAT
To sign up for the Nordic delegation, please send name, email, company and requested pass type for all participants to Forum Manager Christina Jul Gregersen by the delegation deadline 2 May 2014.
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27.03.2014
Nordics at Sunny Side of the Doc 2014
Partnering with EDN, we are coordinating the Nordic delegation to Sunny Side of the Doc 23-26 June in France, securing Nordic film professionals value-for-money access. Get a unique opportunity to join Sunny Side of the Doc's worldwide network! Read more here.
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27.03.2014
Meet the Nordic Delegation at Hot Docs
Don't miss the Nordics at Hot Docs, North America's premier documentary festival, market and conference, taking place in Toronto, Canada, 24 April-4 May 2014.
We have coordinated a delegation of documentary professionals from the Nordic countries who will be attending different parts of the event. So there should be a good chance of meeting us at either the screenings, the International Co-Production Day, the Hot Docs Forum and around. Check out the Nordic films and projects in the Official Selection here and the Nordics at Hot Docs here.
Forum Manager Christina Jul Gregersen will be present at the festival 26 April-1 May. To set up a meeting with Christina, send her an email or contact her at +45 6131 8539.
Buyers, festival programmers, sales agents and distributors can already now check out some of the Nordic films at Hot Docs at Nordisk Panorama Market Online, our professional streaming service for Nordic short and docs. Read more here.
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27.03.2014
Successful Third Edition of Nordisk Panorama Town Hall
The third Nordisk Panorama Town Hall took place during Tampere Film Festival, gathering key industry stakeholders for a Nordic forum addressing current issues in the short and documentary film industry, kindly organised by our Finnish reference group.
Up for discussion was "The Finnish Short Film Oscar Nomination: what, how, who, when again, and what does it matter?". The panel consisted of producer Elli Toivoniemi and writer-director Jenny Toivoniemi from Tuffi Films, the production company behind the Oscar nominated short Do I Have to Take Care of Everything? and Kati Nuora, International Communications Officer at the Finnish Film Foundation.
The discussion between the panelists and the audience was very active. It was moderated by Ulla Simonen, producer and member of the Finnish reference group, and took place in a positive and uplifting atmosphere. Finnish board member, producer Sami Jahnukainen from Mouka Filmi says "It feels like a new wave of energy has arrived to the short and documentary filmmaking in Finland thanks to the 1st Oscar nomination". It is the first time Finland has received a nomination in this category and only the second Finnish film to ever receive an Oscar nomination.
The morning after, Market Manager Jing Haase hosted the Tampere edition of Who Would Buy This?. The session presented international short film buyers, sales agents and distributors to the Finnish filmmakers, who in return screened their films and received immediate feedback from the professionals. The session was vivid and entertaining and resulted in at least one distribution deal more or less on the spot.
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27.03.2014
Here is the Board of 2014
The board of Filmkontakt Nord, the mother organisation of Nordisk Panorama, has been constituted on a board meeting in Copenhagen in March.
The Board consists of five board members, one from each Nordic country, all active in the short film and/or documentary sector in their respective countries. The national board members are elected for a term of four years by the national reference groups representing the relevant associations of independent filmmakers and producers in each country.
The FkN Board 2014 consists of:
Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, Krumma Films, Iceland (Chairman)
Sami Jahnukainen, Mouka Filmi Oy, Finland (Vice Chairman)
Helle Faber, made in copenhagen, Denmark
Dag Hoel, producer, Norway
David Herdies, Momento Film, Sweden
The annual activity report is now available online.
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27.03.2014
Happy Easter - the Office is Closed
The office will be closed from Wednesday 16 April and over Easter. We're back again on Tuesday 22 April.
New Nordic and International Initiatives
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27.03.2014
Hot Docs Announces Films for Made In Denmark Programme
The Canadian international documentary film festival Hot Docs will showcase recent works from Denmark in this year's "Made In" programme. The Made In Denmark programme will highlight the high calibre of filmmaking in the Danish documentary community.
Made in Denmark films have now been announced and they are:
The Agreement / Karen Stokkendal Poulsen - pitched at Nordisk Forum 2012
Ai Weiwei The Fake Case / Andreas Johnsen
Beach Boy / Emil Langballe
A Different Kind of Boy / Ulrik Wivel
Four Letters Apart - Children in the Age of ADHD / Erlend E. Mo
How I Live, as You Wanted to Know / Christian Einshøj
Pine Ridge / Anna Eborn
Songs for Alexis / Elvira Lind
"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."
We have coordinated the Nordic delegation to Hot Docs, securing Nordic film professionals access at a discount with special benefits for delegation members. Check out the Nordic delegation at Hot Docs here.
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27.03.2014
Crowdfunding - In the Wake of the Oscars
Nordic films were well represented at this year's Academy Awards and Danish short film Helium by director Anders Walter and M&M Productions took home the Oscar for best Live Action Short, winning over the Finnish contender in the same category Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?. For M&M Productions it is the fourth time they have brought home one of the prestigious statuettes. A big congratulations to the team behind the film.
There was no Academy Award for The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, produced by Final Cut for Real (DK) which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature and among its many wins took the prize for Best Nordic Documentary at Nordisk Panorama. Despite losing to the US music film 20 Feet from Stardom, Oppenheimer told UK newspaper 'The Guardian': "The film has caused a level of change in Indonesia beyond anything we could have hoped for three years ago. We didn't make the film to win an Oscar, but to open up possibilities for real change."
Prior to the Oscars, The Act of Killing producer Signe Byrge Sørensen and her team launched a crowdfunding campaign for their new political documentary Democrazy by director Andreas Møl Dalsgaard (The Human Scale, Bogotá Change). Dalsgaard's new film tells the story of the unlikely Columbian politician Antanas Mockus, who works to change a violent and corrupt country with mimes, pencils and honesty. The Democrazy campaign has just reached it's goal of $ 60.000 and is still open for support until tomorrow 28 March 12:30 PM CET.
Danish director Mahdi Fleifel has also launched a crowdfunding campaign raising funds to make his documentary A World Not Ours eligible for the 2015 Academy Awards. The film is an intimate, humorous portrait of three generations of exiles in the Ein el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Among the film's many awards is the prize for Best New Nordic Voice at Nordisk Panorama 2013. It will be broadcast on U.S. public television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films POV on 18 August 2014. With 9 days left of the campaign for A World Not Ours, the team has reached over 50% of the $ 12,000 goal and they are still open for contributions.
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27.03.2014
Student Film Competition in Haugesund
The Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund has launched a new competition programme for graduation films from the Nordic film schools.
Six film schools in the Nordic region will submit graduation films for Haugesund's new Student Competition programme: the National Film School of Denmark, Aalto University School of Art and Tampere University of Applied Sciences in Finland, The Norwegian Film School, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts and the University of Gothenburg's Valand Academy in Sweden.
The competition programme will contain a total of nine graduation films, selected by a jury from all national Nordic film schools. The films are to be shown during the official festival programme 19-22 August, and the winner will be announced on Thursday 21 August 2014.
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27.03.2014
New Education for Screenwriters in Denmark
University of Southern Denmark (SDU) has announced a new screenwriting programme, starting this September. The programme will be academically based following the model of SDU's journalistic study programme.
Coming Head of Studies Heidi Philipsen has recently been on a research trip to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to find inspiration in their academical screenwriting programme and SDU will continue the collaboration with UCLA.
One of the initiators behind the new programme is Danish feature film producer Michael Obel who saw the need to cater to the current lack of screenwriters in Denmark. Bo Damgaard, managing director of regional film fund FilmFyn, immediately liked the idea. Through his connections at SDU and with financial help from the Danish Producers' Association, Nordisk Film Fonden and FilmFyn this new programme is now being brought to life at SDU.
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27.03.2014
Join the Young Producers Club in Cannes
For the second year, the Young Producers Club in Cannes is open to applications from young Nordic producers in established companies or who have recently established their own production company and are in Cannes during this year's film festival.
The initiative was launched last year by Noemi Ferrer, International Producer at The Danish Film Institute and Tina Wagner Sørensen, Head of Post Graduate Training at The National Film School of Denmark. Their intention was to create a programme to strengthen the Nordic Producer's network and to support international co-production.
The Young Producers Club consists of a 3 days programme from 16-18 May, looking into different project and business cases from the Nordic countries. A number of experienced film professionals in producing, sales, distribution, TV etc. have been invited to share their experience.
The Young Producers Club has room for approx. 25 producers from the Nordic countries. The programme will consist of lectures, networking and a case study in Nordic/European co-productions and is designed to encourage and strengthen networking among Nordic producers.
The participant's fee is € 100 and deadline for application is 2 April. Download the full invitation and programme here.
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27.03.2014
Danish SPOT Festival Creates Film Programme
Danish SPOT Festival which is known as a showcase for new Nordic music has ventured into film, launching its film programme under the name SPOT Film. With the music programme as its role model, the ambition is to spot the most promising Nordic filmmakers and tendencies.
Films are divided into three categories:
Spot The Film is the festival's main program and offers films from new Nordic talents within fiction and documentaries.
Spot The Music is a music-film program with a particular focus on the combination between music and film, in everything from music documentaries concerning big international artists to films about underground scenes.
Spot The Video shows national and international music videos.
The film festival will close with an awards ceremony, where a professional jury will distribute awards and glorification to the best filmmakers. Besides the film programmes, SPOT Film offers combined films and concerts, academic seminars, pitch forums and artist talks.
SPOT Festival also features an interactive conference and workshops in partnership with regional transmedia venture Shareplay under the heading SPOT Interactive. Here the aim is to find the answers to the question: "How do you design and develop interactive media experiences that reach new audiences and create new branding opportunities with new ways of earning money in mind?"
SPOT Festival runs 1-4 May 2014 in Aarhus, Denmark.
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27.03.2014
Radical Democracy: European Video Challenge
With the European Parliament Elections ahead, the Doc Next Network is calling on media makers, social activists and critical thinkers to share their views on 'Europe', in the form of audiovisual media works for their "Radical Democracy 2014: European Video Challenge".
The Doc Next Network encourages filmmakers to challenge prevailing notions of democracy and representation, to reflect on alternatives, and to create new narratives for an open society. Submission is open to all genres and visual forms in any format and can be specially made for the challenge (preferably) or existing works of up to 5 minutes.
A professional jury will select five winners receiving an award of € 2,500 and five special mentions, each receiving € 1,000, to be handed out at the Planete+ Doc Film Festival in Poland in May.
Deadline for entries is 13 April 2014. Visit challenge.docnextnetwork.org for more info and guidelines.
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27.03.2014
Sundance Institute & TED Seek Short Doc for Big Prize
Sundance Institute and TED has announced an open call for proposals for the second collaboration between the two organizations, which will jointly award $ 125,000 for a short documentary film project about the work of the 2014 TED Prize winner - Charmian Gooch, Co-founder and director of Global Witness.
"Documentary film has the power to amplify a crucial message and mobilize engaged citizens. Through the Sundance Institute | TED Prize Filmmaker Award, one filmmaker will tell the story of Charmian Gooch's vision to launch a new era of openness in business and help bring her bold project to audiences world-wide," said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute.
The winning project must: highlight the work of the TED Prize winner over the course of their first 12 months after receiving the award; be suitable for creating appreciation and deeper understanding of the TED Prize winner's work; be independently produced, with creative control held by the producing/directing team; display directorial vision/aesthetic; and have the potential for theatrical release.
Deliverables for the award include a short cinematic film of 25-40 minutes in length, a multi-platform release strategy, a trailer of under 90 seconds, and a 3-5-minute version of the film. Film projects must be completed within 18 months of the announcement of the award. Clips will be screened at the 2015 TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada.
The Institute's Documentary Film Program will accept proposals until 1 May 2014 at www.sundance.org/ted and will oversee the selection process in collaboration with TED. The winning proposal will be announced in June 2014. For more information about Charmian Gooch, winner of the annual TED Prize, visit www.ted.com/prize.
