Danish and Norwegian content, authenticity, new perspectives and stories that stand out are on top of their ‘watch list’ said panellists Agnes Parkrud, Arman Zafari and Lotte Laitinen.

The session ‘New Filmmakers: Challenges & Dreams’, held on Wednesday at Helsinki’s Bio Rex Lasipalatsi Theatre, was put together by the Finnish Film Affair industry showcase, in collaboration with Nordisk Film & TV Fond, as part of the Fund’s 20-something theme year.

The Fund’s CEO Liselott Forsman opened the session by saying that in 2022, Nordisk Film & TV Fond is looking at the future of distribution within the Nordic region in multiple ways. ”We need to listen especially carefully to the new generations that have grown up with access to global content 24/7 and to whom sustainability in all possible forms is wonderfully self-evident,” she said.

Swedish producer-Nordic Film Lab 2022 delegate Agnes Parkrud (B-Reel Films) and aspiring director Arman Zafari (Aalto University, Finland) said they prefer watching series than feature films, and are avid consumers of Nordic content. “Series feel more accessible story-wise,” said Parkrud.

A video clip from the Fund’s talks with participants from the Young Nordic Producers Club 2022 showed that 12 out of 14 producers mentioned series when asked what Nordic non-domestic film or series they have last watched. Most titles cited were Norwegian. Also, based on other interviews conducted by the Fund, films and series from Norway tend to stand out.

The panellists in Helsinki praised Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, but many Danish titles too.

Afghanistan-born Zafari, who moved from Iran to Helsinki six years ago, said he grew up with Iranian social-realist films, which might be the reason why he likes Danish films. With series, he enjoys the portrayals of communities, with often a relatable gallery of characters and themes dealing with class-structures. He commented on the advantage to see Nordic films in Nordic languages: ”As there is no film industry in Afghanistan, one of my biggest dreams is to see a film where I can hear my own language.”

Asked by moderator Andrea Reuter to name some of their favourite Nordic shows or films, Zafari cited the Danish films The Guilty by Gustav Möller and Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice.

Parkrud said she watches a lot of Danish content, such as the series Borgen and Thomas Vinterberg’s award-winning film Another Round.

Meanwhile young screenwriter Lotte Laitinen (Aurora Studios) said she prefers films to TV dramas for their contained running time, and in particular projects with a strong voice and point of view. “Personally, I want to create content that empowers people and allows them to identify with the characters-in particular stuff from women and queers’ perspectives,” she said.

Laitinen’s top Finnish films include Auli Mantila’s The Collector and Selma Vilhunen’s Hobbyhorse Revolution. She admitted not watching much non-Finnish Nordic content. ”I’d like to see more utopias, more risk taking, more colours more music and more of everything in the Nordics. When I did research on HBO and Netflix and searched ‘Nordic’, everything that I found looked very dark”,” she said.

A clip with Nordic upcoming filmmakers, interviewed during the last Göteborg Film Festival expressed similar wishes. The filmmakers longed for more braveness, magic and fantasy instead of the long-time dominance of realism, which is felt to be especially strong in Sweden.

Commenting on the demanding working conditions and fast-pace of production in the streaming era, Parkrud and Zafari said they regret the long working hours that create stress and reduce quality levels. “I often hear from people that our generation [millennials] is lazy, but we simply want to work in a more sustainable way,” Parkrud said.

And what would be their suggestions to improve Nordic content? asked Reuter.

New genres, better dialogues and structural sustainability; suggested the group of rising talents filmed in Gothenburg.

Representation on screen is making progress, but more efforts in class diversity and filming outside the major cities are Parkrud’s proposals.

As for Zafari, he was keen to see more networking between schools and more short film showcases from emerging talents at international festivals, and Nordic stories with new perspectives to investigate. He cited as an example Bong Joon Ho's Parasite upside-down social hierarchy where ‘in order to be nice you have to be rich’.

Looking into public funding schemes available to support young Nordic talent - a topic already raised during Haugesund’s previous 20-something panel at New Nordic Films (see separate story: CLICK HERE), Reuter cited the various national film institute initiatives in the Nordics to support rising Nordic talents: New Danish Screen in Denmark, NEO in Norway, Moving Sweden and Wild Card in Sweden, while one in four projects backed by the Finnish Film Foundation goes to new talents. She also said Finland’s AVEK and the Finnish Culture Foundation have just launched a new support and mentoring scheme for new talents.

Finnish Film Affair running until September 23, is the biggest film industry event in Finland, held alongside the 35th Helsinki International Film Festival Love & Anarchy, closing September 25.​