FkN Newsletter
February 2009
FkN News
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In the beginning of next month once again, Filmkontakt Nord's Nomadic Office will arrive at Tampere Film Festival in Finland. The Nomadic Office offers individual consultancy regarding Nordic and International financing of documentaries to filmmakers with new documentary projects, and this time it will be hosted by Filmkontakt Nord's Director, Karin Johansson-Mex. The individual meetings are already set, but Filmkontakt Nord welcomes Finnish filmmakers and international guests alike at the traditional FkN cocktail taking place at the festival centre Bravo Plaza, Saturday 7 March at 18:00. Join Karin and Finnish Chairman of the Board, John Webster, for a drink and a short update on Filmkontakt Nord as well as this year's Nordisk Panorama having its 20th anniversary in Reykjavík, Iceland.
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At the same time, the Nomadic Office will arrive at Tempo Documentary Festival in Stockholm, Sweden. Here it will be hosted by Filmkontakt Nord's Int'l Promotion & Marketing Manager, Katrine Kiilgaard, and the Nomadic Office will this year be part of Tempo's new Industry Days taking place at Cinema Rio 5-6 March. With this new initiative, Tempo Documentary Festival is creating a professional but informal meeting place and hopes to gather the filmmaking community and inspire new creative collaboration. Thus, at the Meet Market filmmakers can book a meeting with different Swedish financiers as well as FkN, while new knowledge can be gathered at the EDN seminar and master class, and last but not least money can be earned at the new Tempo Pitch.
Also in Stockholm, Filmkontakt Nord is happy to offer a drink to old and new film friends. Join Katrine and Swedish Member of the Board, Terese Mörnvik, at Hotel Scandic Malmen on Friday 6 March 17:00 - 18:00.
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Mid March, Director Karin Johansson-Mex and Nordisk Panorama Market Coordinator, Jing Haase, will be attending BUFF, the International Children and Young People's Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden. This year for the first time, a special section at the BUFF Film Market will be dedicated to Nordisk Panorama Market Online, Filmkontakt Nord's new online screening room for registered professionals. Filmkontakt Nord will be present at the BUFF Film Market on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 12-14 March to introduce the platform to attending buyers, distributors and festival programmers, thus making it possible to screen the latest and greatest Nordic shorts & docs at Nordisk Panorama Market Online.
Focus: New Nordic and International Initiatives
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Doc Alliance, the partnership between the five key European documentary film festivals CPH:DOX (Copenhagen), DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, Planet Doc Review (Warzaw) and VISIONS DU REEL (Nyon), launches a new online portal on 1 March. www.docalliancefilms.com offers permanent access to 250 outstanding documentaries selected by the five partner festivals. Twenty new films will be added monthly and these can be acquired through streaming or download.
Another activity of Doc Alliance is the Doc Alliance Selection, representing five high-quality films, one selected by each of the Doc Alliance festival partners. The films tour at the five festivals and at the end of the year an international jury decides about the Doc Alliance Award.
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This year's Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market presented a new initiative, Euro Connection, the 1st European Short Film Co-production Forum. 19 short film projects, among these two Norwegian projects, backed by dynamic production companies looking for partnerships in Europe were pitched during four pitching sessions. After the pitches, one-on-one meetings were arranged on the premises of the Short Film Market.
In addition to the pitching sessions Euro Connection aim to map the different short film production support institutions in Europe. For this first edition, the ten partner countries of Euro Connection (Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania and Switzerland) were studied as well as the Netherlands - 2009 Festival guest of honour, and the results were handed out to attendants of Euro Connection in Clermont-Ferrand.
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In Southern Sweden, in the Skåne region, two regional film events are working together and have created a local pitching event for short films, giving inexperienced filmmakers the possibility to gain knowledge about the industry and to find local financing for their next film. Skånska Filmdagar in Malmö and PIXEL Short Film Festival invite filmmakers to submit projects for the pitch, taking place in Lund 18 April. Six projects will be chosen to pitch in front of a panel consisting of local film institutions, that also sponsor the awards - financing, equipment and know-how to make a short film, and a guaranteed cinema screening.
To read more about deadlines, the pitch and the awards, see PIXEL's website.
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The Skåne region is bubbling with new initiatives, thereby providing fertile soil and support for new talent.
BoostHbg, a 3-year initiative based in Helsingborg, is a pioneering program that aims to develop new storytelling techniques. BoostHbg's task is to support, develop and strengthen chosen talents and their projects. A successful BoostHbg project will build a dramatic story while developing new and gripping methods to deliver it. BoostHbg accepts project of all genres and durations - fiction and documentary as well as cross media projects. BoostHbg prefers to receive projects in their early stages and offers different kinds of support to the selected projects, a.o. mentors, consultants, equipment, facilities and matchmaking. Learn more at www.boosthbg.se.
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In January, Doc Lounge opened a branch in Stockholm, now making it possible to watch great documentaries in cool surroundings in three Nordic cities: Malmö, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Doc Lounge is an open club where documentary lovers can watch top-notch International documentary films in a casual environment. Instead of the cinema rows, you buy a beer in the bar and watch the film lounged in couches or on pillows. After the film, funky DJs accompany the discussions in the bar.
Doc Lounge has its origins in Malmö, where it's become a popular weekly event, in March screening films like IDFA-winner Burma VJ and Oscar-winner Man on Wire. Read more about Doc Lounge here.
