The head of the Aarhus industry platform THIS-Future Stories& Engagement and the public festival Aaarhus Series tells us about her 2021 event.

How has ‘THIS’ multi-strand platform Aarhus Series evolved since you started and what are your expectations for this year?
Felicia Elisabeth Jackson: We are still ‘teenagers’ compared to other events! This is only our third year, and after last year’s hybrid event under the pandemic, we are launching fully on-site to incentivise people to come in Aarhus.

We are pleased that most guest speakers will be here [80 for ‘THIS’ and 95 for Aarhus Series]. We will only stream a few sessions where the demand is huge, such as the opening of Aarhus Series with the creators of Young Royals. We sold out the 400+ tickets for the live event in 24 hours, and have more than 2,000 streamers registered from all over the world.

All the talks at the industry sessions will be in English language as well as some of the festival presentations, such as the Netflix’s Swedish Original The Unlikely Murderer, The Young Royals, SVT’s A Royal Affair, to cite a few. The rest will be in Danish for the local crowd.

Your programme is impressive. Is your intention to become the biggest Nordic event for storytelling, where industry people and general audience can watch some of the latest Nordic shows and be inspired? Do you see yourself as a complement to TV Drama Vision in Göteborg?
FEJ: Yes I do, but I see our Aarhus event rather as a complement to CopenhagenTVFestival. Our angle however is more on engaging stories that reflect society and have a cultural impact. This is why we focus on youngsters. Our festival and industry event are cross-generational, about what binds us together.

As a Nordic platform for storytelling, we are pleased to welcome this year the five Nordic film institutes at a special ‘Meet the Film Institutes’ session. It is a stamp of approval to have them all coming to Aarhus. We will also hold the usual ‘Meet the Nordic Drama Bosses’.

What is your ambition with the first THIS Series Awards?
FEJ: We are curious to see how people will engage with this new initiative. Our goal is to celebrate and acknowledge the best creators and talents working in TV drama-not in front but behind the camera-such as the best writers, directors, mini-series, comedies, new talents etc.

We have a total of 10 prizes, including one for the Best Nordic TV drama and an Audience award. We have an outstanding jury of professionals: Keld Reinicke, Ann Lind Andersen, Film & Series Expert at Nordisk Film TV, Pernille Bech Christensen from TV2 Fiction, Cosmo Film’s Rasmus Thorsen and Kim Leona, Head of Scriptwriting at the National Film School of Denmark.

Our prize itself has been designed by top artist Rose Eken. It is meant to reflect society and our time. Every year, we will have a new contemporary Nordic artist designing the statuette.

What can you say about this year’s main theme?
FEJ: Our theme ‘Woke up Call’ is meant to engage us in the WOKE concept and the Generation Z, how youngsters are driving societal changes with movements such as Black Lives Matter, #FreeBritney, #MeToo, the school strike for the Climate, and therefore shaping storytelling.

This is why we have a talk about the US show Genera+ion from HBO Max, which bridges the gap between generations, and Netflix’s Young Royals as opener of Aarhus Series. The young kids are embracing the series because they see themselves in it, they can imagine a society with a gay prince. There is nothing scandalous about it, it’s just about being human. We are probably in the biggest youth revolution since the 1960s, and this movement has been consolidating in recent years. We are revisiting history-through shows such as A Royal Secret-and turning prejudice into acceptance, negatives into positives.

Are these some of the biggest trends in storytelling that you’ve noticed?
FEJ: Yes, definitely. Being human, reflecting society as it is, are at the heart of today’s storytelling. A series such as NRK’s Pørni is also totally relevant. We want to see TV shows that make our flaws look positive. Then the Nordic Noir is still very much alive, although with different shades.

What other highlights would you like to underline for this year’s event?
FEJ: We have sessions about VR experiences with the company Makropol, about human intelligence and technology joining forces through Mindpool, about the New Pioneers and US Demand for Creative Danish Content, and René Bachtman, co-founder of Moonbug Entertainment, will discuss his phenomenal kids programme CoComelon.

We will also launch the docu series Why Plastic. As a platform, backed by public support, we know the value of public service and the importance of stories with a meaning.