FkN Newsletter
December 2013
Nordisk Panorama News
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19.12.2013
Spotlight on Short Films on the Shortest Day of the Year
Saturday 21 December is the shortest day of the year, and a day where a number of countries put spotlight on short films and celebrate the Short Film Day. This year for the first time, Denmark and Finland joins a line of countries like France, Germany and the UK in highlighting remarkable short films on the shortest day of the year.
In Denmark a parade of shorts will be screened in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense. We have contributed with a special programme of Nordisk Panorama Highlights, with films focusing on human relationships and emotions that surely won't leave you untouched.
Other partners of the first Danish Short Film Day are leading institutions in the Danish field of shorts: The Danish Film Institute's New Danish Screen, the Danish film magazine Ekko and Odense International Film Festival who will each present a film programme. The Danish broadcasting coorporation will also dedicate the shortest day 21 December to shorts on the cultural channel DR K.
Read more about the Danish Short Film Day here (in Danish) and meet Market Manager Jing Haase at Cinemateket in Copenhagen 21 December.
Finland, too, is organising its first edition of the Short Film Day. On its dedicated website, an advent calendar can be found, which offers a new short film online every day in December. Amongst all the Finnish events, an entire evening dedicated to short films is scheduled on Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, in cinemas as well as other venues in Tampere and Helsinki. Find more info and a trailer here (in Finnish).
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19.12.2013
Nordic Shorts & Docs Award Winners of 2013
Throughout the year we keep an eye on the Nordic short films & documentaries winning awards around the world. As we are approaching the end of the year we would like to congratulate and celebrate the Nordic shorts & docs winners of 2013. Please find the list of award winners here.
Many award-winning Nordic shorts & docs are available at our streaming service Nordisk Panorama Market Online, open to film buyers, festival programmers, sales agents and distributors. If you are one and would like a login to keep track of the best of Nordic shorts & docs, please send us an email stating your organisation and position.
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19.12.2013
Nordisk Panorama Looking for Interns
Nordisk Panorama is looking for interns for Nordisk Panorama Market and for Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries. The internships will take place at the Copenhagen office. Read more about the internships in Danish here.
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19.12.2013
The Office Closed for Christmas & New Year
Our offices in both Copenhagen and Malmö will be closed from 20 December for the holidays. We will be back and ready for a new exciting year of Nordic short and documentary films on 6 January 2014. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
New Nordic and International Initiatives
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19.12.2013
Norwegians & Dutch Enter Co-Production Agreement
The Norwegian Film Institute and the Netherlands Film Fund announced at IDFA documentary film festival in Amsterdam in November that they have signed a co-production agreement to further documentary co-production between the two countries. The aim is to open up for a wider film collaboration and more specifically within the field of documentary, where both parties feel they have a lot in common.
Within the next two years, three majority Norwegian docs and three majority Dutch docs will receive financing of up to € 50.000 from the minority producer's national funding body. To qualify, the projects must be documentary films of more than 60 minutes who have received funding from their national film fund.
Norwegian film was well represented at this year's IDFA documentary film festival in Amsterdam with four films and three projects selected, including Susann Østigaard & Beathe Hofseth's Light Fly, Fly High (Fri Film) which received the Oxfam Global Justice Award and Twin Sisters by Mona Friis Bertheussen (Moment Film) which won the Audience Award. In general there was a significant Nordic representation at IDFA 2013.
This year's Nordisk Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries also welcomed a delegation of Dutch producers, aiming to strengthen the collaboration between the Netherlands and the Nordic countries and we are looking forward to watching these partnerships blossom.
Read more about the new agreement in the Dutch film publication SEE NL here and check out the Dutch delegation at Nordisk Forum 2013 here.
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19.12.2013
RUV Budget Cuts Condemned by European Public Broadcasters
The European Broadcasting Union EBU recently released a statement denouncing the cuts imposed on European public service media, especially the recent 20% downsizing of Icelandic broadcaster RUV.
EBU sees these cuts as "disproportionate" and states that "excessive budget cuts to public service media cannot serve as a quick fix to a nation's economic woes; it is precisely at times of crisis that the public needs strong public service media to be an indispensable source of reliable, quality information".
At the end of November the Icelandic government passed a new broadcasting act, proposing to cut more than one billion Icelandic krona (EUR 6 million) from RUV's income at its 2008 level and, from 2014, severely restricting RUV's right to sell advertising and secure sponsorships, costing it a further ISK 400 million annually (EUR 2.25 million).
In total, the government's decision to withhold a large portion of the broadcast fee and to reduce revenue from commercial activity equates to a 20% downsizing of RUV. As a consequence it was announced late November that the Icelandic broadcaster will have to let go of more than 20% of its staff, equal to 60 people. More than 10,000 people have signed a petition urging the Icelandic government to reverse the planned budget cuts.
Director of RUV Páll Magnússon said: "We have no alternative at this time to meet the cuts demanded by the government but to let staff go and reduce our programming". Páll Magnússon announced his own resignation Tuesday 17 December, explaining that he doesn't feel he has the sufficient trust of the board at this time.
Other leading European public broadcasters such as the BBC, France Televisions, ZDF, RAI and RTVE have also experienced downsizing of their budgets since the beginning of the economic crisis.
Last month, Norway's new centre-right government proposed a cut to Norwegian pubcaster NRK's slightly increased licence fee, reducing the broadcaster's expected annual income by close to NOK 30 million (€ 3,65 million). As a consequence NRK will be going through an extensive process of rationalization and restructuring in 2014.
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19.12.2013
First Calls for Creative Europe Launched
Creative Europe, the new EU support programme for 2014-2020 for the cultural and audiovisual sector has launched its first calls for proposals.
With a total budget of € 1.46 billion (2014-2020), Creative Europe will have a budget increase of 9% compared to the previous programmes. The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe will support the EU film and audiovisual industries financially in the development, distribution and promotion of their work.
For 2014 three new initiatives in Audience Development & Film Literacy, International Co-productions and Video Games will be launched. More innovations will follow including a new Financial Instrument for the Creative sector.
The following deadlines have been launched:
Support for the Development of Single Projects and Slate Funding
Single project: 1st deadline: 28 February 2014, 2nd deadline: 6 June 2014
Slate Funding: 28 March 2014Video Games: 28 March 2014
Support for Television Programming of Audiovisual European Works
Deadlines: 28 February 2014 & 13 June 2014
Support for the transnational distribution of European Films - the "Cinema Selective" Scheme
Deadlines: 28 February 2014 & 2 July 2014
Support to Film Festivals
Deadline for activities starting between 1 May 2014 & 31 October 2014: 28 February 2014
Deadline for activities starting between 1 November 2014 & 30 April 2015: 4 July 2014
Development - Video games
Deadline: 28 March 2014
Support for Access to Markets FPA
Deadline: 6 June 2014
Support for Access to Markets single
Deadline: 7 March 2014
Distribution - Automatic support
Generation: 30 April 2014
Reinvestement: 31 July 2015
Distribution - Support to sales agents
Generation: 18 June 2014
Reinvestment: 1 March 2016
Reaching the audience - Cinema networks
Deadline: 27 June 2014
Reaching the audience - Audience development
Deadline: 23 March 2014
International Co-Production funds
Deadline: 21 March 2014
