The vision of the High Five Toronto initiative was to highlight 13 upcoming high quality Nordic films and to strengthen the international distribution possibilities for another 13 completed Nordic films (selected for The Toronto International Film Festival) through an extraordinary and new international cinema distribution support.
The aim of The High Five Toronto initiative was to give Nordic films a better chance of being sold in an increasingly tougher international marketplace.
The success of The High Five Toronto initiative was due to a satisfactory number of applications for The International Cinema Distribution Support Scheme (Deadline 1 December 2009).
Only distributors having acquired cinema rights during or after Toronto (mid September 2009) had the possibility to apply. Many titles/territories had been sold direct to video/TV or before the starting date of the initiative.
An anonymous group of experts went through all applications 9-10 December, and 15 December 2009 was the day to announce the grants given under the initiative. The Fund received 34 applications divided on 11 out of the total 13 films selected.
Since there was a maximum support cap of € 20.000 per application the percentage of support was between 6-28%. The Fund worked with a "coin system" where grants were either € 2.000 - € 4.000 - € 6.000 etc. there were a few smaller applications where one more or less "coin" meant a major difference in terms of percentage of support. Most supports were around 20%.
Since the number of applications was so high it was decided to top the announced minimum total amount: € 200.000. The final total amount granted for the High Five Toronto International Cinema Distribution Support was € 298.000 (NOK: 2.531.700).