FkN Newsletter

November 2008

FkN News

Filmkontakt Nord at IDFA

FkN's Heidi Elise Christensen and Katrine Kiilgaard will be at IDFA as of Saturday 22 November and will be delighted to meet you if you have questions about FkN activities or Nordic shorts and docs in general.

Focus: New Nordic and International Initiatives

Short Films in the Cinemas in Sweden and Norway

The pilot project Svensk Kortfilm (Swedish Short Film) has hit the Swedish cinemas under the motto: 10 films, 10, cinemas, premiere 10 October. The goal of this initiative is to distribute 25 short films to 50 cinemas each year. The films will be screened in HD-format in Quicktime and Windows Media format, making it easier and less costly to distribute the films. The films are offered to the cinemas free of costs and tickets for the screenings are also free. The first title to premiere was acclaimed director Jonas Odell's animated documentary Lies. A new film will premiere each week for 10 weeks. Behind Svensk Kortfilm is Folkets Bio, a cultural organization that imports, distributes and screens quality films of all genres. The initiative is supported by the Swedish Film Institute.

In Norway, Oslokino is boosting the short format as well. In a series this fall and winter under the title 45 - en omgang kortfilm (45 - a round of shorts), Oslokino shows new Norwegian short films on the big screen. Like the Swedish initiative, this program is for free.

The Northern Nordic Regions Unite

Film Arc is a new inter-regional film initiative set up by Filmpool Nord and Film i Västerbotten in Sweden, POEM in Finland and Filmcamp in Norway to strengthen the audiovisual industries in Northern Sweden, Finland and Norway. The initiative is set up in the framework of Cine-regio, the European network of film funds, with the intention of strengthening local production companies by giving them access to training, seminars and on-going consultancy support. The main goal is to create stronger businesses not only within companies working with feature film, but within the the whole framework of moving images, including cumputer games, advertising, and mobile content. In December, ten production companies from each region will be announced. These 40 companies wil be invited to six master classes in 2009, where experts will discuss current issues such as digital distribution and co-financing.

New Platforms for Documentaries

Reelisor is a new online cooperation platform for the entire European documentary business. Discovery Master Campus has created this online forum to encourage training, education and the exchange of knowledge within the international documentary film market and its related fields. Reelisor is a freely accessible tool for networking. It offers a.o. a platform to market yourself in a professional context, links to documentary filmmakers from all over the world, insight into current productions, company profiles, industry events, trade news, etc. To read more and join in, go to www.reelisor.com.

Like FkN already did last year, Docs for Sale - the documentary marketplace of IDFA - launches an online version in December 2008 immediately after the festival. Like the FkN service, the platform is not open to the public but aimed at sales agents, buyers, festival programmers and museum curators. However, unlike FkNs online market, that is for free for this user group, Docs for Sale Online is subscription based. Sales agents will be able to submit documentaries to the platform all year round, while there will be two yearly submission rounds for other professionals, in February and May. Films will be subject to the same selection criteria as for Docs for Sale. For more info, go to idfa.nl/industry/docs-for-sale.

Film Festivals in New Surroundings

Two new short film festivals, focusing on new techniques and new screening platforms, have seen the light of day in Denmark. The Dogma Mobile Film Festival is a festival for dogma films, created on mobile phones. The festival is an ongoing online event, with some 'real life' happenings along the way. To be a part of the dogma festival, the filmmaker has to take a vow of chastity and select dogmas to follow when making the mobile film. Read more about deadlines, awards and the jury on www.dogmamobile.com.

Another festival, that has taken the step out of the darkness of the cinema is 60 seconds. The festival changes the Metro stations of Copenhagen into cinemas, thereby creating a new space for cinematic narratives in the Copenhagen underground. The festival is a week long event, culminating in an awards ceremony in one of the Metro stations. For more details, deadline and schedule, see www.60sec.org.

NordicWorld Signs Deal with YLE

Oslo-based NordicWorld has signed a distribution deal with Finnish public broadcaster YLE, adding a fifth major Nordic broadcaster to its partners including NRK (Norway), TV4 (Sweden), MTV3 (Finland) and TV2 (Norway). NordicWorld started selling YLE's programmes at MIPCOM in Cannes this October.

Parallel to the YLE partnership, NordicWorld announced the creation of a new Investment Fund to bring documentary programmes and drama series to the international markets. The Fund will be used to co-finance new programmes and to secure distribution rights. Projects submitted should already have one broadcaster attached and for documentaries, some footage available.

Screen Films in your Newspaper

The Danish Film Institute and Danish newspaper Politiken is cooperating on a new project, CLIPS. CLIPS invites experienced filmmakers and new talents to have a go at the small format: 3-5 minutes for the web. CLIPS wants to explore filmmaking in the age of web 2.0. Will new tecniques and new platforms cause new narrative styles and new aesthetics? Is it possible to create cinematic works of art with power, originality and lasting qualities for the media of today, the internet? Can the filmmakers conquer the attention of the web users? See the films on www.politiken.tv and decide for yourself.

DR Focus on Children and Documentary

Next fall Danish public broadcaster DR launches a 12 hour children's channel. The channel will air between 6 in the morning and 18-19 in the evening. The content will mainly be classical children's programmes from the archives of DR, new programmes produced by DR and animation. DR stresses that the content will be of a kind that parents can feel secure with their children watching. DR's existing children's department will be handling the new channel and will continue to create universes using different medias, thereby creating synergies. When the children are tugged in, the channel changes into a history channel, also here making use of DR's large archives. The plan is also to buy history programmes from e.g. ARTE (France) and BBC (UK), and to exchange history programmes with the Nordic sister channels.

Already this fall, DR is boosting documentary films. DR2 has recently lauched its new documentary slot DOKUMANIA. Two hours of documentary films from all around the world every Tuesday in prime time.