A week of Nordic meeetings and culture awards in Helsinki

This week is marked by Nordic political and cultural dialogues in Helsinki. The Nordic Council Culture Awards ceremony created a unique atmosphere in the Great Hall of the University of Helsinki October 27, as Nordic ministers filled the audience seats and awarded Nordic artists within film, music, literature, and children’s literature took the stage together with the winners of the Nordic Council Environment Prize.

CLICK HERE for all winners.

The creative forces behing this year’s awarded film Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi) brought their own message to the ministers in the room. After Finnish actress Krista Kosonen had handed over the film prize to director-scriptwriter Joachim Trier, scriptwriter Eskil Vogt, producer Maria Ekerhovd and producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Trier held an upfiting speech that ended in a concrete request: “So, hurray for art made by people, meaningful art, meaningless art, Nordic art. And my Nordic friends, our politicians, please invest in cultural budgets in the future. Thank you very much.”

CLICK HERE for Joachim Trier’s full speech.

Investments pay off. For the first time ever, one Nordic country excelled in all categories. After all five culture prizes went to Norway this year, Nordisk Film and TV Fond met with Norway’s MInister of Culture Lubna Jaffery, who first of all thanked the gifted artists, but also commented on the connection between Norway’s successes and the country’s cultural strategy:

CLICK HERE for Lubna Jaffrey’s full comment.

The day after the award ceremony, Nordic Ministers of Culture had invited representatives of the audiovisual industry to visit their meeting in the Finnish House of Parliament. This dialogue was a part of a process that started when the (then) Danish Minister of Culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt encouraged the seeking of new means to strengthen Nordic distribution.

After the Nordic Council of Ministers tasked Nordisk Film & TV Fond (NFTVF) to appoint an expert group to look into the questions raised, NFTVF commissioned market and audience studies as a base for the group’s work, and formed the high-level Nordic Market Working Group with the following members: chair Arne Helsingen (Secretary General/ Nordvision), Morten Fisker (Head of External Productions & Rights/TV 2 DK), Katrine Vogelsang,(CEO/Nordisk Film Production), Laura Kuulasmaa (Executive Director/Audiovisual Producers Finland), Lars Wannebo (EVP Distribution/SF Studios) and Gisli Snær Erlingsson (CEO/Icelandic Film Centre). Cecilia Widberg(Senior Adviser, Nordic Council of Ministers) acted as an observer during the group’s meetings.

The meeting with the ministers started with a presentation given by Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s CEO Liselott Forsman on NFTVF’s pan-Nordic work, and on the group’s process to find recommendations that would benefit the Nordic industry. She also expressed a wish for the dialogue and the political and industry collaboration to continue.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Andrea Reuter on the working group’s report, the final version of which will be published next week. Among other things, the report deals with recommendations on stable public funding and new harmonising and coordination possibilities within the Nordic industry. Two representatives of the group, Morten Fisker and Gisli Snær Erlingsson, participated in the panel together with the founder of Tekele Production, producer Miia Haavisto.

Having had a sneak preview of the report, Haavisto called it “a very good road map” stressing the necessity of stable financing: “The Nordic industry requires strong and solid public funding. Incentive or AVMS-based funding opportunities add to this foundation. This is key in creating and delivering authentic Nordic stories for local, regional and global audiences.”