Between May 10-14, the Nordic professionals selected among 20 European producers, will take part in the European Film Promotion’s tailor-made initiative in Cannes to facilitate European co-productions and networking.

Denmark’s Per Damgaard Hansen co-founded his company Masterplan Pictures in 2013 with producer Julie Waltersdorph Hansen who graduated with him from the National Film School of Denmark. His production credit includes the multi-awarded film Winter Brothers by Hlynur Pálmason. 

3 questions to Per Damgaard Hansen
What does it mean for you to be Denmark’s Producer on the Move?
PDH: It’s a great opportunity to present some of our upcoming projects to potential partners. Also I’m very much looking forward to sharing thoughts and insights with fellow filmmakers from other parts of the world.

What projects are you currently working on?
PDH: We are currently in post-production with The Blue Orchid, a debut feature by Carl Marott. His graduation film The Oasis was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Joachim Fjelstrup (Greyzone) plays the leading role. The Blue Orchid is a fever dream about a young photographer losing his sense of reality and connection to the real world.

We are also in production with an Untitled Simon Staho feature film, based on his own script written with Christian Lollike. Simon has teamed up with award-winning cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff [Winter Brothers]. The project is backed by the Danish Film Institute.

Our films in development include If the light Takes Us, by Danish/Icelandic director Anna Maria Helgadóttir, written by the acclaimed author Kim Leine [2013 Nordic Council Literature Prize]. This will be his first screenplay. It’s a drama about a young girl breaking free from her life on an isolated island in the North. Then I Travel with People is the directorial debut of Morten Jørgensen who created the satirical TV series The Bank-A New Normal for DR. I Travel with People is a comedy/drama about a socially challenged travel writer.

How does Masterplan Pictures stand out on the market and adapt to the changing landscape of indie film & TV production and new distribution outlets?
PDH: At Masterplan Pictures, we believe in challenging the audiences, ourselves and the film medium, exploring different ways of storytelling. That is a benchmark for all our projects.

We are a small boutique production company which allows us to keep costs fairly low and carefully consider the needs of each project. This also makes it possible for us to experiment in terms of financing, distribution and artistic expression.

Finland’s Miia Haavisto has set up her own company Tekele Productions in 2018, after several years as producer and CEO of the prominent company Helsinki filmi where she produced Tom of Finland, Miami among others. She also produced Aku Louhimies’ war drama and mega-hit The Unknown Soldier for Elokuvaosakeyhtiö Suomi 2017.

Her goal at Tekele is to ‘pave the way to the next generation of producers’ and work with confirmed talents such as her close collaborator Antti Heikki Pesonen (Headfirst) and newcomers such as Ulla Heikkilä. 

3 questions to Miia Haavisto
What does it mean for you to be Finland’s Producer on the Move?
MH: It is an honour. I look forward to getting to know many new and interesting producers and projects. I’d like my newly established company Tekele Productions to be active internationally and to co-produce fine films. Now with the production incentives in place also in Finland, we have a good scheme to offer at our end.

What projects are you currently working on?
MH: I will primarily present a new project in development by Ulla Heikkilä called The Confirmation.

How does Tekele stand out on the market and adapt to the changing landscape of indie film & TV production and new distribution outlets?
MH: Tekele Productions will make exquisite films for the world to see. I believe in high quality and that films are made for an audience. Big or small, but an audience all the same.

I have not had the time to develop TV series yet, but that will change. I look forward to developing inspirational stories with the kind of greatness a TV drama dimension has to offer.

Iceland’s Birgitta Björnsdóttir co-founded Vintage Pictures in 2011 after a few years spent at Zik Zak Filmworks. She produced Ása Helga Hjörleifsdottir's award-winning film The Swan and co-produced Benedikt Erlingsson's Woman at War, selected for Cannes’ Critics' Week.

3 questions to Birgitta Björnsdóttir
What does it mean for you to be Iceland’s Producer on the Move?
BB: I’m very excited to be a part of Producers on the Move. I think it’s a great opportunity to meet like-minded people, and hopefully form future partnerships.

What projects are you currently working on?
BB: Vintage Pictures was recently given a grant from the Icelandic Film Centre for the film Agnes Cho by Silja Hauksdóttir who has directed the film Dís and several TV series such as the award-winning comedy Ástridur. This will be her second feature. It’s the story of Agnes (18) who lives with her mother Rannveig and father Einar, who go through a crisis. When the actor Hreinn moves to town to work on a film script, all of the family members are charmed, and the mother/daughter relationship is faced with new obstacles.

I’m also working on A Reply to Helga´s Letter, the new film by Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir (The Swan).

How does Vintage Pictures stand out on the market and adapt to the changing landscape of indie film & TV production and new distribution outlets?
BB: My goal with Vintage Pictures is to continue to strive for good projects that I am passionate about. The distribution outlets are ever changing, so it is a matter of following the changes closely and trying to adapt.

Norway’s Åshild Ramborg joined the prominent Norwegian production house Maipo Film in 2009. Her production credits include Anne Sewitsky’s Homesick and Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s successful family adventure film The Ash Lad, in the Hall of the Mountain King. 

3 questions to Åshild Ramborg
What does it mean for you to be Norway’s Producer on the Move? 
ÅR: I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. More than ever I am reminded of how important it is to have a solid European network, based on mutual trust. It’s easy to get lost in translation, and I experience that it’s hard to take projects in development to the next level without strong partners  on board.

What projects are you currently working on? 
ÅR: My priority in Cannes is to look for co-production partners for The Eternal Summer directed by one of Norway’s most talented young directors Jakob Rørvik. It’s an unsentimental love story, about Elisabeth (29) who gets the message that her husband has only one last summer to live. She then escapes into an intense relationship with a younger man. We are now in the middle of casting and plan to shoot next year. Additionally, I will raise awareness about the The Ash Lad trilogy directed by Mikkel Brænne Sandemose (Ragnarok) as well as an adrenaline-pumping thriller inspired by true political events written by John Kåre Raake (The Wave), amongst others.

How does Maipo Film stand out on the market and adapt to the changing landscape of indie film & TV production and new distribution outlets?
ÅR: Our most important asset is content; the quality of the content and strong, long-lasting relationships with the outstanding talents we collaborate with. We are always searching for new ways to finance our films and TV dramas and to reach our audience. However, the main focus will always be the stories and finding new ways of telling these stories, surprise, challenge, amuse, shock or simply entertain the audience.

Sweden’s David Herdies founded Momento Film in 2011 as a platform for new talents in documentary and feature film. He produced the short film Madre by Simón Mesa Soto, selected in competition in Cannes 2016, Theresa Traore Dahlberg’s documentary Ouaga Girls, and co-produced Tinatin Kajrishvili's Berlinale Panorama 2018 film Horizon.

3 questions to David Herdies
What does it mean for you to be Sweden’s Producer on the Move?
DH: It’s a great opportunity for me to broaden my network, especially within the field of fiction where I am not as established as in the documentary field – and to get the chance to market and find partners for some of our upcoming projects. It’s also a good opportunity to create more visibility for Momento Film and our sister company Momento Studio which specialises in sound post-production. As we just launched the sister company, we are right now looking for some really cool projects that we can co-produce.

What projects are you currently working on? 
DH: We have three feature projects planned for next year: The Rabbit Yard (De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar) is based on the August Prize winning novel by Johannes Anyuru, who is writing the script with US-based writer Mercies May. Goran Kapetanovic (My Aunt in Sarajevo) is directing. The near future sci-fi project deals with hope and hopelessness in today's Europe, about friendship and betrayal, and about the theatre of terror and fascism. TriArt is attached as distributor. 

Madame Luna is a drama inspired by the true story of an Eritrean girl who is washed ashore in Libya, and with time becomes one of the most notorious human smugglers with deep ties to the Sicilian Mafia. The film is based on an idea by Binyam Berhane, written by award winning Palestinian writer Suha Arraf (Lemon Tree, Syrian Bride). 

The Gods (Gudarna) based on a book by Elin Cullhed is directed by documentary filmmaker Ahang Bashi who makes her fiction debut. The story adapted by scriptwriter Emma Broström (Flocking) tells of three teenage girls who use girl power to take revenge on the sleepy small town of Tierp, the adult world and every douchey guy.

We have also seven creative documentaries in development, such as Anna Eborn’s Transnistra and Eloy Dominguez Serén’s Hamada.

How does Momento Film stand out on the market and adapt to the changing landscape of indie film & TV production and new distribution outlets? 
DH: We try to stay true to the films we want to produce, and not make films – or formats – that are following trends. That said, we are of course always trying to find ways of building audiences for our films. We start at an early stage (during development) to build unique strategies for each film, together with carefully selected partners, in order to analyse our target groups and see how we can combine different platforms in order to reach our audiences. The majority of our films are international co-productions for an international audience, so our strategy is to find trans-national target audiences rather than making a blockbuster only for a Swedish audience.