Natasha Arthy's Fighter released before Christmas, was the first title to be handled by Sandrew Metronome. But the overall deal covers all films previously released by Filmfolket (AFR, Cecilie, A Man Comes Home, White Night) as well as Nimbus' upcoming ambitious Flame & Citron by Ole Christian Madsen (premiering on March 28), Søren Kragh Jacobsen's political thriller What No One Knows (June 13) and the documentary film Roskilde by Ulrik Wivel (April or May release).
Furthermore, Sandrew Metronome has signed an output deal with Nimbus Film on the company's future productions.
Set up less than two years ago, Filmfolket was originally founded by Nimbus Film, Zentropa and Loke Havn. Zentropa left the partnership in December 2006 and the remaining two shareholders continued with their plans to release Nimbus' titles as well as a few pick ups. "We had three films that basically didn't work theatrically this year," conceded Havn, referring in particular to Thomas Vinterberg's A Man Comes Home which sold only 31,232 tickets. "It takes huge investments to start up a new company specialised in Danish films because you need time to establish artists, and P&A costs are prohibitive. Nimbus needed some security to continue its production activities, so we agreed to stop our collaboration."
"The last six months for the theatrical market in Denmark have very been slow," added Nimbus' co-founder Bo Ehrhardt. But Fighter is now doing OK (over 45,000 admissions) and hopefully the film will have a long life."
According to Ehrhardt, Filmfolket as a name and distribution outfit is still active within Sandrew Metronome, but after the release of Roskilde, Sandrew will then decide whether to keep Filmfolket as a niche arm or to close it down. As per veteran distributor Havn, he is hoping to get back into distribution as soon as possible.
On the production side, Nimbus Film which made its name in the 1990s as a nurturing ground for new filmmakers, has recently inked a deal with TV2 Denmark to make small budget films (up to DKK12 million) without financial support from the Danish Film Institute. "Our deal with TV2 illustrates our wish to experience new ways of making films with upcoming talents. We will still continue to produce in parallel more traditional films with bigger budgets such as Flame & Citron," noted Ehrhardt. The first project is scheduled to start shooting next May.