FkN Newsletter

October 2012

Nordisk Panorama News

25.10.2012
Nordisk Panorama 2012 in Numbers
This year's Nordisk Panorama took place in Oulu, Finland. While it was raining in Helsinki, Oulu showed itself from its best side to the more than 600 accredited guests from more than 25 different countries who had come to Oulu to enjoy 6 days of films, seminars, Outlook sessions, forum, meetings, networking - and sauna.

The first peak into the evaluation of this year's Nordisk Panorama shows that the festival was a great success. 94% of the attending guests state that the festival lived up to their expectations, 70% say that Nordisk Panorama is a good place to do business and 79% confirm that Nordisk Panorama is the place to boost their professional development. No wonder then, that 63% have already now marked their calendar for next year to make sure not to miss the most important yearly event for Nordic shorts and docs!

During the festival, some 150 films were screened in 50 programmes. The 232 market films were screened more than 750 times by around 40 Nordic and international market guests and more than 80 NPM one-to-one meetings were set up by the market staff.

24 projects were pitched at Nordisk Forum in the presence of 200 forum delegates and more than 50 Nordic and international decision-makers. This year a record of more than 420 individual meetings were prearranged by the forum staff and even more meetings happened on the spot.

Next year's Nordisk Panorama will take place in the culturally vibrant city of Malmö, Sweden 20-25 September. Check out the pictures from this year's festival at the Nordisk Panorama facebook site and mark your calendar for Malmö 2013.

FkN News

25.10.2012
Filmkontakt Nord in London, Uppsala, Malmö, Copenhagen and Amsterdam
In October and November Filmkontakt Nord is attending film festivals and events in UK, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Earlier this month Nordisk Panorama Market Manager Jing Haase and Nordisk Forum Manager Christina Jul Gregersen attended the Power to the Pixel Cross-Media Forum in London, for networking and inspiration for next year's festival.

This week Jing Haase is a member of the Swedish jury at Uppsala International Short Film Festival taking place in Sweden 22-28 October. If you're in Uppsala, you can reach her at +45 3132 0212.

FkN's Managing Director Katrine Kiilgaard and Nordisk Forum Manager Christina Jul Gregersen will be attending CPH:DOX (1-11 November) to expand the international network and promote the new films available at Nordisk Panorama Market Online, FkN's online streaming service for international tv-buyers, sales agents, distributors and festival programmers. 52 films from the Nordic countries (whereof 33 are Danish) have been selected for the festival.

Katrine Kiilgaard will also be attending M:DOX (8-11 November), catching up with old and new colleagues in the Swedish documentary community. Besides seminars, talks, screenings and social events, M:DOX features a Mini-Panorama, screening films from this year's Nordisk Panorama.

Finally, Katrine Kiilgaard and Christina Jul Gregersen will be in Amsterdam 16-21 November, attending both IDFA and the FORUM where Christina will be present as a matchmaker, facilitating interaction between forum participants.

At IDFA (14-25 November) no less than 22 films from the Nordic countries can be enjoyed in the different sections of the festival and FkN will be promoting Nordic docs through Nordisk Panorama Market Online.

The Nordic countries are also very well represented at the IDFA FORUM with 12 Nordic projects out of a total of 58 selected projects, which means that no less than 20% of the projects are Nordic.

To set up a meeting with Katrine, send her an email or call her at +45 2042 4529. To set up a meeting with Christina, send her an email or call her at +45 6131 8539.

New Nordic and International Initiatives

25.10.2012
Norway's Film Budget Up NOK 38 Million
While budgets are being cut across Europe, Norway's new Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik recently announced that Norway will up the state contribution to the film and audio-visual industries by NOK 38 million, reaching a total allocation of NOK 744.7 million in 2013. NOK 447 million of this will be allocated for film production through the Norwegian Film Institute. Furthermore NOK 10 million will be set aside for 'internationalisation' of Norwegian film.

The increase in the budget is a part of Norway's long-time goal for culture to represent 1% of the state budget in 2014.

25.10.2012
Netflix Launched in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland
US subscription video-on-demand service Netflix was launched in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland last week, continuing its international expansion. In addition to a wide selection of Hollywood titles and TV shows, there are also many local titles, now available to ten million Nordic broadband households.

In Denmark the service was launched with 55 Danish docs from 11 different producers available for streaming, as a result of the Danish Producers' Association's initiative One Stop Shop, negotiating rights on behalf of its documentary producers. Most of the Danish docs are also available to members in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Danish Producers' Association is open for more Danish doc producers to join and will also be negotiating with other VOD platforms.

With more than 27 million streaming members, Netflix is the world's leading Internet subscription service for films and TV programmes. Netflix is priced at SEK/DKK/NOK 79 a month in Sweden, Denmark and Norway and EUR 7.99 in Finland.

The launch comes ahead of US cable network HBO's planned Nordic launch of HBO Go next month, increasing the competition in the SVOD area.

25.10.2012
ITVS International to Accept Applications All Year Round
The funding organization ITVS International has changed its application process, removing the submission deadline. Documentary projects can now be submitted on a rolling basis throughout the year, instead of only once a year.

The International Initiative provides production and/or post-production funds for single non-fiction television documentaries that bring international perspectives, ideas, stories and people to a US audience. This initiative is for non-US producers and filmmakers who live outside the US.

For more info on the new guidelines and changes, please visit www.itvs.org/funding/international.