Inside Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision: bigger, bolder and sold out

Playing out January 27-28 and 28-30 respectively, the Göteborg Film Festival’s annual Nordic industry events TV Drama Vision (TVDV), and Nordic Film Market (NFM), spell activity aplenty. The 27th NFM edition showcases 70 films, works in progress and development projects in the Works in Progress (19 entries), Discovery (16 entries), and Nordic Gateway (6 entries) sections, alongside 18 completed market screenings. TVDV, edition 20, features 50 Nordic and European series at various stages of production, including 16 in-development and 4 works in progress projects.

Special sessions include the exclusive “Inside the Entertainment System” presentation, guided by Ruben Östlund and peeking into his upcoming feature The Entertainment System Is Down; a special conversation with multitalented and -awarded producer, screenwriter and former Focus Features CEO James Schamus; a further unveiling of the Cannes 2025-launched “Dogma 25 - Reloaded” initiative; an expanded Nordic film school spotlight; and a special collaboration project with DOCA, Documentary Association Georgia. “Wonderful Things That Work”, taking cue from the latest Nostradamus report, dives inside and elaborates outside of perceived demands and algorithms, and the AI showdown keeps pushing boundaries, as will be dazzlingly demonstrated by “Steve and His Friends in the Multiverse”, courtesy of Banijay Entertainment’s Steve Matthews. Just to scratch the surface.

By current count, 850 key industry delegates are registered for the TVDV event, while NFM counts over 750 professionals for the NFM dates.

“The recent figures confirm a record year. We’re more or less sold out, or will be soon. The total of accreditations this year will be around 2500,” says Josef Kullengård, Head of Industry. Cia Edström, Head of TVDV, heartily concurs.

In May last year, you announced a significant piece of news regarding your relocation for the forthcoming edition. Is it all in place now?

Kullengård: It certainly is – a one stop shop, all-inclusive. The Clarion Hotel Draken is our new home, we’ll have WIP presentations in the beautiful Draken cinema, and the rest in the adjacent Drama Hall. Panels, presentations, pitches, meetings, networking – the full programme will happen in the same building, a logistic that positively affects the whole texture of the event. You’ll be able to get a drink or a lunch in the restaurant, and we’ll have our different evening receptions there. It’ll be a heightened experience, I feel a great energy about the whole thing.

We’ve also expanded our New Nordic Voices platform, and this year we launch what we hope will be an annual event, partnering with the Nordic film school network NORDICIL and inviting film students from nine member schools across the Nordic region. One project from each school has also been chosen here, to be pitched to the international industry participants. We expect some 150 students in town.

The TVDV catchphrase this year is “One Transformation After Another”. The sessions bear names like “Rethinking IPs and Formats”, “Rethinking the Audience”, “Producing Smarter: Creativity Under Pressure”, and not least “From Rubble to Reinvention: Reengineering Entertainment Now Everything Has Changed”.

Edström: It’s just what it says. Reality moves with breakneck speed across our industry. Times are tough, budgets diminish, new formats emerge, AI changes games… Navigating through all this is crucial for one and all; creators, producers, institutions. This has been the starting point in this year’s programme, through close dialogue with industry representatives. Lots of focus this year is on current and future tendencies; we feel it’s needed right now, urgently and warmly, in order to provide direction through these transformations, which are seemingly far from over at this point.

What can you say about the projects?

Kullengård: NFM has one of the strongest line-ups in all my years here. It’s that perfect blend we always strive for and to some extent succeed in getting, at least at times. This time we did it. There’s brand new talent side by side with strong established names – a solid representation of Nordic greatness coupled with a breath of fresh air, both in the WIP and the Discovery sections. The genres are varied and plentiful, there’s exciting documentary and classic art house, and a few things quite far from classic art house. I’ll wager some major festival participation for some of them, including Sweden, where there’s been a bit of a low ebb lately. Not so in 2026, I strongly sense.

Edström: Very exciting, very varied, very good contributors, some big Nordic names, some of which are doing their first series. I can truly say that the Nordic series enjoy a vital existence. As just noted, times may be rough, but at the same time there’s quite a bit of very high quality coming in. From the rest of Europe we have eight exciting projects that shouldn’t be missed. It’s quite fantastic to assemble these line-ups together with the industry, which cannot be more generous in sharing and aiding us in creating the programme.

You’ve both been around for quite some years in the Göteborg operation. Which edition is this for you, and has there been a lot of change?

Edström: It’s my twentieth edition at TVDV. Before that, I worked with the festival in various functions. Yes, a lot of change. In those days, we still worked with 35mm prints. If the weather was difficult, it could be quite a challenge, moving them across town to various cinemas.

Kullengård: It’s my tenth year overall, and my fourth as Head of Industry; I started out as Editorial Coordinator. A lot of things have changed. Before the pandemic, in 2019, we had 600 participants at NFM and TVDV – altogether. Now it’s twice that amount. The European co-production partnerships have just increased year by year. Göteborg looks like an outpost on the map, but these days we’re seen as the main Nordic gateway. We cover this region, we cooperate all across Europe. It’s a role that’s truly been cemented during these ten years.

Göteborg Film Festival Industry 2026 is supported by NFTVF.

More info on NFM: CLICK HERE.
More info on TVDV: CLICK HERE.