for Co-financing of Documentaries

Oulu, Finland, 23-25 September 2012

In 2012, Nordisk Forum took place in Oulu, Finland during three days, 23-25 September. 216 professionals from 19 different countries attended the event.

Producers Meet Producers
Nordisk Forum kicked off on Sunday 23 September with a revamped version of the networking event Producers Meet Producers, featuring in-depth networking, a co-production case study and round table discussions on co-production experiences and practice. The aim was to facilitate the efforts to find suitable co-production partners and form the bonds necessary to access funds across borders. 29 producers got the chance to present themselves and their ambitions to each other. A panel of Nordic documentary consultants also offered insight into the Nordic film institutes' rules and requirements.

Polish Delegation
To facilitate connections outside the Nordic countries, Nordisk Forum welcomed a small Polish delegation to the event. Nine Polish producers were invited to meet with the Nordics at Producers Meet Producers and outline the Polish production landscape.

The Polish delegation was arranged in co-operation with Katarzyna Wilk and Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła from Krakow Film Foundation and also welcomed commissioning editors from the Polish film institute and Polish television to the pitching and meeting tables. Furthermore one Polish project was selected for the Nordisk Forum pitch and a Nordic project with a minor Polish co-producer present was selected in the observer meeting category observer+.

Observer+
For the second year, the observer+ category gave selected observers access to meetings with decision-makers. Observers who had applied with a project and had been selected by a selection committee were able to book meetings with decision-makers and experts through the Nordisk Forum booking system, to ensure the quality of the matchmaking. 21 observer projects were selected in this category.

Regular observers without a selected project were still free to approach decision-makers for meetings, if decision-makers had an available slot in their meeting schedule and many meetings were organised by producers on the spot.

Pitching and Meetings
In addition to the 19 regular pitches, Nordisk Forum presented the five Nordic Wildcards to boost the element of innovation and surprise. One project from each of the five Nordic countries was brought to our attention by the documentary consultants at the Nordic film institutes because of their novel qualities. The filmmakers and their projects all had a most positive response from the forum attendees.

The pitching sessions were moderated by Gitte Hansen, Deputy Director, First Hand Films (Switzerland) and Mikael Opstrup, Head of Studies, EDN (Denmark).

In the afternoons, time was set aside for individual meetings - totalling 423, arranged by the Nordisk Forum Staff. On top of this, many meetings happened on the spot.

Cross-Media Projects
This year Nordisk Forum officially opened its doors for cross-media documentary projects with experts from this field in place. 10% of the applications were cross-media projects, 4 projects were selected for pitch and 1 for the observer+ category.

Nordisk Forum Online
In 2012 the web platform Nordisk Forum Online featured detailed profiles of decision-makers, project info and trailers, booking of meetings as well as professional profiles of all participants at Nordisk Forum, in order to facilitate the networking. NF Online opened four weeks before the physical forum, giving all delegates a chance to prepare before the event.

Financiers and Distributors
Besides 43 Nordic and international financiers, 11 international distributors, sales agents and experts were available for meetings, sharing their knowledge about the film and television market, giving advice about a projects' potential in terms of distribution. They all introduced themselves to the accredited Nordisk Panorama participants on the first night of the forum, before the two days of pitching and meetings.