French production and distribution group Newen, owned by TF1 group, has just acquired a 33% equity stake in Nimbus Film, headed by Birgitte Hald and Bo Ehrhardt.

Nimbus has produced more than 55 films over the last 25 years, from the first two Dogme films The Celebration and Mifune, to Flame & Citron, Antboy and the cult series The Bridge, produced with Sweden’s Filmlance International. Nimbus’s fresh alliance with the fast-growing Paris-based media group is a win-win’ deal for both partners.

Romain Bessi, Newen managing director said: “Given that our goal is to expand our footprint in dynamic, creative markets and access new formats and talents, we had to go to Denmark, where it quickly became obvious that we had to partner with Nimbus. Bo and Birgitte have created a great company that has brought to the world wonderful films and TV series and has great values. We share these values, so we felt like it was the right time for both of us to work together. We will bring Nimbus access to more resources, to our distribution team, to our formats and connections with our family, and this has already started since several appealing projects are under way.”

Nimbus Film’s Hald said: “We very much look forward to the future collaboration. For Nimbus Film the partnership with Newen gives us the opportunity to strengthen and expand our development of film and television series. With Newen we have found a partner who shares our values and vision on how to produce local content for a global market. Furthermore, it has been important to us that Newen is interested in supporting Nimbus in its current form with freedom to continuously act as an independent production company.”


Hald told nordicfilmandtvnews.com that the partnership has already influenced Nimbus’ strategy for the coming years and harder drive into TV drama.

A handful of series are currently in development, two of which are Newen collaborations.

  • Northern Lights (10x43’) is written by top Norwegian writing duo Siv Rajendam Eliassen and Anna Bache-Wiig (Acquitted) and directed by Natasha Arthy (The Rain). When a giant solar storm hits the atmosphere of Europe, what started as passing inconvenience turns into a permanent state of emergency. For ten days, people will struggle against this massive blackout and will somehow rediscover solidarity as they try to survive in the dark. The dystopian TV show is produced by Nimbus for Viaplay, with Newen handling world distribution. 
  • The Antboy animated series adapted from the hit family Danish film series, will be produced in collaboration with Newen’s subsidiary Blue Spirit (My Life as a Courgette).

On the film side, Nimbus Film has four projects in development and pre-production.

  • Our Man in America by Danish director Christina Rosendahl (The Idealist) will go into production later this year. 
  • Echo by Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson (Sparrows) is slated for a November start of principal photography. It’s a poetic drama about modern Iceland and its society during Christmas time.
  • Erna i krig directed by Henrik Ruben Genz will be based on an upcoming novel by best-selling Danish novelist Erling Jepsen, adapted for the screen by Bo Hr. Hansen. Genz’s acclaimed feature film Terribly Happy was also adapted from Jepsen’s novel. The project has received development support from TV2, FilmFyn and Den Vestdanske Filmpulje.
  • The Worms of Carmine Street set to start filming in the fall 2019, will be directed by Sweden’s Karin Fahlén (All Inclusive) from a novel by crime author Håkon Nesser.