for Co-financing of Documentaries

Aarhus, Denmark, 25-27 September 2011

In 2011, Nordisk Forum took place in Aarhus, Denmark during three days, 25-27 September. 257 professionals from 17 different countries attended the event.

Producers Meet Producers
Nordisk Forum kicked off already on Sunday with the networking event Producers Meet Producers. Introduced last year, the event aims to facilitate the efforts to find suitable co-production partners and form the bonds necessary to access funds across borders. The initiative gave 32 producers the chance to present themselves and their ambitions to each other. A panel also offered insight into the Nordic film institutes' rules and requirements. The presentations were followed by an afternoon of speed dating.

German Speaking Delegation
To facilitate connections outside the Nordic countries, the event welcomed a small German speaking delegation of producers from Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Besides introducing themselves at Producers Meet Producers, the delegation members outlined the German speaking production landscape together with Susanne Guggenberger, Visions du Réel and Daniel Saltzwedel, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH.

The German speaking delegation was arranged in co-operation with Visions du Réel, Susanne Guggenberger and DOK Leipzig, Christine Hille, and also welcomed commissioning editors from the German speaking countries to the pitching and meeting tables. Furthermore two German projects were selected in the observer meeting category observer+.

Observer+
To ensure the quality of the matchmaking, new rules applied to observers at Nordisk Forum 2011. This year only 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. 24 observer projects were selected in this category referred to as observer+.

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.

Pitching and Meetings
In addition to the 19 regular pitches, Nordisk Forum presented the 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. On top of these pitches, the Moderator's Hat gave an observing producer the opportunity to pitch a new project on the spot, due to a last minute cancellation.

The pitching sessions were moderated by Ulla Simonen, Producer and Partner, MADE (Finland) and Christian Popp, Producer and Partner, docdays productions (Germany).

In the afternoons, time was set aside for individual meetings - totalling 349, arranged by the Nordisk Forum Staff.

Nordisk Forum Online
In 2011 Nordisk Forum Online featured detailed profiles of decision-makers, project info and trailers and in addition a meeting booking system. Furthermore NF Online was expanded with professional profiles of all participants to further facilitate the efforts to find suitable co-production partners. NF Online opened four weeks before the physical forum, giving all delegates a chance to prepare before the event.

Financiers and Distributors
Besides 37 Nordic and international financiers, 9 international key distributors and sales agents were available for meetings during the two days, 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 the night before the forum.