Big names and a strong Nordic imprint at Oslo Series Days, but the Norwegian industry remained in focus

The issues varied from co-production economics, creative writing and AI to extravagant fashion in drama series. Strategic and entertaining sessions and famous guests filled three auditoriums.

Writer-director Beau Willimon became famous as the creator of HBO’s House of Cards series, but is also a big name for Star War fans all over the world, as the writer of the brand’s highly acclaimed prequel series Andor. He generously opened up about his creative methods on stage, and so did Danish writer-director Thomas Vinterberg, whose films have won both Academy Awards and prizes in Cannes. In Oslo, Vinterberg talked about the experiences from directing his first drama series, the NFTVF supported Families like Ours (Familier som vores).

One of the organizers, NRK’s Drama Innovation Chief Jan Strande Ødegårdstuen explains the guiding principles when planning the lineup for the 9th edition of Oslo Series Days.

“We tried to put together a programme that had something for everyone. We offered some quite niche sessions, which made a combination of both broad and narrow.”

Another goal was to foster hope and inspiration after some turbulent years.

“Last year was a bit dark for the industry, with the shutdown at Viaplay, the strike and budget cuts. So the previous festival was more serious, and people said they felt a bit depressed afterwards. But this year is brighter, so we had an ambition to create some hope.”

A brighter future for Nordic drama was also the resounding message when Norwegian decision makers gathered on stage at the well-attended session The Summit of Norwegian Heads of Drama. Alice Sommer (TV2), Andreas Bakka Hjertø (Nordics for Prime Video), Marianne Furevold (NRK), and Rebecca Medbøe (Discovery) all presented upcoming shows, and promised to have their doors open for new ideas.

The festival was divided into an Industry Day and a Masterclass Day. The Industry Day gathered around 400 attendees, while the more intimate one-day Masterclass deepened some of the themes of the Industry Day in an interactive way.

Although Oslo Series Days positions itself as one of the most important TV series festivals in the Nordics, the majority of the high-profile programme ran in Norwegian and Danish. “The question of going all English is raised among the organisers every year,” says Jan Strande Ødegårdstuen.

“Every year we discuss whether we should go all English or not. But for now, we’re sticking to having some sessions in Norwegian and some in English, and then we’ll see. For Oslo Series Days, the most important target group is the Norwegian industry, which needs a meeting place where the domestic industry comes together.”

Strande Ødegårdstuen emphasises that the Nordic imprint at this year's festival was stronger compared to previous years, with Vinterberg on stage and other Danish speakers like Associate Professor Jakob Ion Wille, who shared his views on building unique story universes, and Media Advisor Keld Reinicke, who highlighted the need for new strategies, particularly when engaging younger, social media-focused audiences.

While Vinterberg, Wille and Reinicke all spoke Danish on stage, Norwegian Anders Hofseth from NRKbeta, NRK’s sandbox for technology and media, offered a session in English on the bigger picture of AI. He concretely demonstrated AI use in our everyday lives, and also analysed its complicated implications for society.

Among the event’s business themes, Norwegian Associate Professor Vilde Schanke Sundet gave an overview of today’s turbulent industry, highlighting the challenging reorganisations, the competition against social media platforms and current genre preferences. Another session discussed how co-production can secure high-end Nordic drama and foster connections between countries. Something completely different was offered to the fans of the American TV series Emily in Paris. The show’s costume designer Marilyn Fitoussi responded to the critics of the show's fashion, and expressed how tired she is of the “less is more” mentality. She aims for extravagance when crafting the fashion universe for the series.

During the Masterclass Day the AI theme continued, as Austrian Associate Professor Martin Pichlmair and Irish writer and pedagogue Charlene Putney concretely guided the attendees to create new content with the help of AI tools. In Beau Willimon’s masterclass the delegates created a drama series concept together with him. During the process, Willimon demonstrated his character-based working method. Thus, the broadness of the programme was present, as the masterclass combined learning from a scriptwriter master, with mastering AI tools.

Dutch-Swedish Marike Muselaers, Head of Int’l Financing and Co-Production at Nordisk Film Production, said that to her, as an international delegate, the festival succeeded in bringing “positivity and playfulness”.

“Negativity and fear are inevitable in the current state of the market, but in my view, Norway has been great at creating daring, innovative, genre-bending TV series, and I really hope we can keep this going at a time when budgets are decreasing and commissioners are risk-averse.”

Another thought she brought home, is the need to “love our neighbors”.

“For a (still) outsider looking into the Nordics, it’s pretty insane to see that most series don’t travel. We have our coproduction and pre buy deals with broadcasters in the Nordics, and att the same time, do we as producers really look into what the audiences in our neighboring countries like to watch? I’m committed to putting more resources into this.”

Each year Oslo Series Days hands out domestic awards, selected by Norway’s leading media outlets. In 2024, the Best Drama award went to NRK’s Power Play (Makta), the Best Comedy award to TV 2’s Føkkings Fladseth, and the Best Actor award to Kathrine Thorborg Johansen for her role as Gro Harlem Brundtland in Power Play.

The Norwegian Writers’ Guild delivers a pitch price to unestablished screenwriters. This year’s winning project was Nullsum, pitched by Miriam Sunde and Badrudin Ga’ur. Both writers participated in the Fund’s initiative Nordic Script 2023-2024.

Oslo Series Days is organised by Aftenposten in collaboration with NRK, TV 2 and the Norwegian Film Institute. Supported by NFTVF.

For more on Vinterberg as a series director, listen to the Fund and Wendy Mitchell’s fresh Nordic Film Talks-podcast. CLICK HERE.