Entering a new age with the Oslo Series Days

After celebrating its 10th anniversary one year ago, Oslo Series Days (Seriedagene Oslo) is entering a new era. Starting this year, the series festival and industry gathering is held as an extension of the Oslo Pix Film Festival with the organisation behind Oslo Pix, The Festival Office (Festivalkontoret), taking over the administration of the event from Norwegian media house Schibsted and its newspaper Aftenposten.

This year’s edition was arranged in two new venues on Monday August 31, the day after Oslo Pix’ closing weekend.

“It is very exciting to be taking over the reigns of Oslo Series Days, and we're honoured to be trusted with the legacy of this institution of the Norwegian TV industry. We believe that this event has a natural place as a part of the Oslo Pix Film Festival, and are looking forward to integrating it further into the festival,” says the Festival Office’s project manager Alexander Hellstenius to Nordisk Film & TV Fond (NFTVF).

The main part, consisting of an industry day filled with talks, discussions and presentations, took place at Klingenberg cinema theatre in central Oslo.

The programme kicked off with a look into present and future media trends by Danish “media guru” Keld Reinicke, who (among other positions) is a lecturer at The National Film School of Denmark, with a broad background from Danish TV. A key point from Reinicke was the necessity of taking risks and embracing change. Also drawing lines to the film industry from its very beginning, he highlighted the major fears in this sector caused at different times by the emergence of the “talkies”, TV and streaming platforms.

For TV drama, the biggest enemy right now is not big tech, but sports and reality, Reinicke also said, pointing to how these formats question the need for expensive drama productions – in a time that is way past the golden age of TV drama. Allegedly, the USA has seen a 47% decline in series production, a situation not too different from the Scandinavian countries. Others at the Series Days referred to as much as 60% less TV drama being produced in Norway compared to a few years earlier. This clearly calls for a fight.

Nonetheless, change is to be embraced, if we are to believe the Danish analyst – even if the changes have never been as “wild” as now. Using the example of TV broadcasters’ old-fashioned weather presenters when almost everyone uses their phones to check the forecast, Reinicke urged the industry to look at what we are doing that needs to be changed, but nonetheless are still doing. Not surprisingly, the strongest force of change is Artificial Intelligence, which we must presume is here to stay – with legislation most likely to be sorted out. In these new times, content, production and technology are equally important – you need knowledge about all three fields to do your job well.

Reinicke also addressed how YouTube is entering the scene on a whole new level, pointing to the Academy Awards, FIFA and several broadcasters having made deals with the platform, among other developments. According to the speaker, YouTube is moving from youth-oriented videos to broader mainstream content, including drama series. Or, as he said: “YouTube just ate TV, and is only just getting started.” Adding to this picture is European broadcasters also entering deals with streamers such as Netflix and Prime Video for shared content, as a result of income from commercials moving over to these platforms – which are now offering cheaper subscription models with ads. Apparently, Meta is showing interest in the possibilities of TV and series formats as well.

Also pointing out that the battle for viewers’ attention has become “crazy”, Reinicke furthermore talked about fandom as a key concept – the need to connect with and engage audiences in new ways, often linked to social media. Ending on a positive note, he emphasised that the next 120 years will not be defined by technology or AI, but still by “understanding people best”.

Artificial Intelligence and how to use it in drama production was also addressed in a talk by Christian Schüssler, founder and creative head of the Oslo-based studio Reimagine, who follows – and works with – this groundbreaking technology closely. Another topic touched upon by Reinicke was the rapidly emerging micro-dramas, which was examined in more depth by Caroline Glomnes. The series creator (and actress), best known for NRK’s dramedy series Cammo, shared her know-how and experiences from making two recent micro-dramas: 21 dager (“21 Days”) for the same public broadcaster and Kaos (“Chaos”), a “branded entertainment” series for the Norwegian grocery chain Rema 1000.

Among the series presented was the upcoming drama series The Traitor Within (Rinnan), telling the story of Norway’s most notorious Gestapo agent during World War II, Henry Rinnan. The 4x45 miniseries was showcased through clips and a conversation with director Kenneth Karlstad (previously known for his TV 2 series Kids in Crime), screenwriter Øyvind Holtmon and actor Axel Bøyum, who plays the main role as Rinnan. Marking Prime Video’s first Norwegian original series, The Traitor Within is produced by Miso Film for both TV 2 and Amazon’s streaming platform – and will be released on Prime Video in the autumn, a short time before it will be screened by the commercial Norwegian broadcaster.

Judging from the atmosphere at the Series Days’ panel talk between executives from NRK, TV 2 and Prime Video, such collaborations between an international streamer and the national broadcasters might be less rare in the future.

The audience were also treated with a sneak peek at the first episode of Danish broadcaster DR’s new drama series Harvest (Høst), which is supported by NFTVF. The series is created by writer/director Martin Zandvliet, who is known for Land of Mine (Under sanden) and Tove’s Room (Toves værelse). Before the screening, Zandvliet took part in a conversation together with lead actress Katrine Greis-Rosenthal, giving insight to the family inheritance drama’s almost documentary-like approach to its portrayal of farming in Denmark.

Having moved over to the social hub Carls at the city’s east side for the last posts on the programme, the audience got to watch the first episode of Swedish director Isabella Eklöf’s miniseries The Death of Bunny Munro, based on the novel of the same name by Nick Cave. The screening followed an in-depth conversation with Eklöf, where she also talked about her feature films Holiday and Kalak, as well as the HBO series Industry and other productions she has been involved in.

The final programme slot of the evening was the annual Series Critics’ Awards to Norwegian series, handed out as part of the Series Days. The award for Best Drama Series went to A Better Man (Ølhunden Berit), created by Thomas Seeberg Torjussen and produced by Maipo Film for NRK, in collaboration with Lithuania’s Artbox. The prize for Best Comedy Series was awarded Nepobaby, created by Henriette Steenstrup and Siri Seljeset and produced by Eldorado Content Club for TV 2 Norway. When the time came for the final award, A Better Man took the spotlight again, with the miniseries’ leading actor Anders Baasmo winning the gender-neutral award for Best Actor. Among other previous awards, A Better Man won three and Nepobaby two awards at last year’s Canneseries. Both series have received support from NFTVF.

“We want to use the coming years to figure out what the industry needs and wants. This is a difficult time for the Norwegian TV industry; as we heard on stage during the event there has been a 60% reduction in productions. We want Oslo Series Days to be a relevant and interesting meeting place for the industry, and we are looking forward to developing the concept further in the coming years,” says Hellstenius on what’s ahead for Oslo Series Days.

The Oslo Series Days is organised by The Festival Office (Festivalkontoret) in collaboration with NRK, TV 2, the Norwegian Film Institute, the Writers’ Guild of Norway, the Norwegian Film Workers’ Union, and the Norwegian Producers' Association Virke.