WRITTEN BY: Annika Pham
Göteborg’s film market was back to pre-pandemic glory with a record number of attendees who hailed the diversity and artistic quality of the Nordic films and projects.
The well-oiled 24th Nordic Film Market (NFM) closed February 4 after two day-pitches of 36 feature films in development and post-production and market screenings of 23 completed titles.
For Head of Industry Josef Kullengård and his team, it was ‘mission accomplished’. "We’ve always set out to be an exclusive high-end platform, yet still accessible, where the international industry can discover Nordic talent,” stressed Kullengård, for the first time fully in charge of NFM.
In terms of attendance, the market - and its TV Drama Vision preamble, welcomed a record 850 on-site delegates, on top of 200 online participants. “Attendee numbers have surpassed pre-pandemic figures,” Kullengård underscored.
Among on-site delegates, Taiwanese distributor Albert Yao of Swallow Wings Films, who attended NFM for the 7th time, said the market is “an important place to meet with sales agents before Berlin. “I’ve watched several festival films in Göteborg and the NFM works in progress, and will continue discussions with sales agents in Berlin” he stated.
Tine Klint, managing director of sales outfit LevelK, whose activity at NFM is equally split between sales and pickups, was pleased with the “very strong representation from international distributors, both in person and online.” LevelK was introducing two projects at the Works in Progress: the Danish LGBTQ+ drama B.O.Y. and Icelandic chiller Cold, on top of the market screenings Exodus and Four Little Adults.
New Europe Film Sales’ CEO Jan Naszewski, sales rep of Dragon Award nominee Godland and Ulaa Salim’s work in progress Eternal, said NFM “was very useful and efficient as always. It was great to catch up with everybody between Sundance and Berlin, and I had a lot done in 1,5 days!” he told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.
The Danish sci-fi Eternal, Salim’s sophomore feature after his breakthrough debut Sons of Denmark, was one of the hottest works in progress.
The story about scientist Elias (Simon Sears) who chose his career over love and starts regretting his choice, was described by Salim as “a film about time, about fatherhood, about our planet and ourselves”. The feature produced by Hyæne Film will be ready for Cannes.
“The reception of Eternal was amazing. We’re very very happy”, said Naszewski who received first offers based on the clips and hopes to close more pre-sales in Berlin. “The general feedback was that it was very cinematic and looked like something the audience and the buyers are looking for-films that promise emotions and entertainment, so we're hitting that I think,” Naszewski added.
Three new female voices at the works in progress who caught buyers and festivals’ attention were Sarah Gyllenstierna’s Swedish thriller Hunters on a White Field, the drama Solitude by Iceland’s Ninna Pálmadóttir - two titles that won project awards at Les Arcs Festival - and the social realistic drama Sisters by former Nordic Talents winner Mika Gustafson, recently picked up by sales agent Intramovies.
Three Norwegian projects from award-winning directors, made strong impressions:
- Erik Poppe’s portrait of ‘what goes on in a totalitarian mind’ - Quisling, the last days of the notorious Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling (Gard Eidsvold), is aiming for an early 2024 release. The Paradox film is sold by REinvent.
- A Happy Day by Hisham Zaman is a poetic drama about love, belonging and being held hostage by authorities through the story of three young refugees stuck in the frozen northern Norway. Snowfall Cinema is producing.
- Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex Dreams Love is a unique offer of three standalone features set in Oslo, and sharing an overarching theme about love, with a queer sensibility, inspired in structure by Kristof Kieslowski’sThree Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red. Motlys producers Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum said the trilogy is targeting the top festival platforms Berlin, Cannes and Venice in 2024. The project is co-financed by Norwegian theatrical distributor Arthaus and Viaplay.
“Seeing some scenes [from Sex Dreams Love] on the big screen for the first time made me both proud and happy,” said Arthaus’ MD Svend Jensen who also praised Poppe and Zaman’s projects for their relevance and high artistic quality. “I'm very much looking forward to seeing their films finished! he said.
Mainstream works in progress that also attracted strong interest were Mikael Håfström’s period historical drama Stockholm Bloodbath (Viaplay/Nordisk Film) with its modern rock & roll feel and attractive performance from Claes Bang, and Ole Bornedal’s chiller Nightwatch-Demons Are Forever (Nordisk Film), sequel to his 1994 cult movie Nightwatch.
In the Discovery programme dominated by female-directed projects (8 out of 10) and stories about sex, love, manipulation, motherhood, the most-talked about projects included The Seal Woman (Denmark) by Tea Lindeburg (As in Heaven, Netflix’s Equinox).
Set in a remote island in the North Atlantic in the 1970s, the drama based on a Faroese legend, is “a tragedy about how we can become cruel in the name of love”, said the writer/director. The Motor production in development is due to start filming in 2024.
Another award-winning rising talent-Swedish filmmaker Isabella Carbonell (Dogborn), pitched Utopia, which explores the effects of sexual violence on victims and their desire to regain control.
Elsewhere, Danish director Gabriel Bier Gislason (Attachment) brought the genre-bending project about letting go No, Wait, produced by Nordisk Film Denmark, and Norwegian rising talent Ibrahim Mursal the hybrid doc Abdu, denouncing Norway’s immigration policy through the real and virtual life of a refugee.
And for the first time, to further highlight upcoming talents, 10 Swedish projects in development selected for the new strand Talents to Watch were pitched by their respective directors.
The Best Pitch award was handed out to Naures Sager’s joyful gay romcom The Love Pill, earlier Best Pitch winner at Haugesund’s Nordic Co-production Market.
Commenting on the overall NFM line up, regular attendee Frédéric Boyer, Tribeca and Les Arcs European Film Festival artistic director said: “Nordic cinema is in great shape! The projects pitched were varied in style and budget, with stories trying to reach out to an international audience. “
Boyer underlined the prominence of projects from female directors and producers, and from filmmakers of immigrant-background, such as Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider), Tarik Saleh (Boy from Heaven) or Milad Alami (Opponent). “These filmmakers of different cultural origin enrich Scandinavian cinema with their unique points of view,” he said.
Although pleased with the overall quality of the projects, Arthaus’ Svend Jensen said he was “a bit disappointed” by the absence of children or family films at the Works in Progress.
Levelk’s Tine Klint felt “there was an excess of directors personal stories and "not easy to sell” films at the Works in Progress and Discovery strands. “That does not mean those will not be great films that show Nordic quality and diversity, but few had the potential to reach a wide international audience,” Klint argued.
Commenting on the co-financing of some feature projects by the platform Viaplay, Boyer said this complicates the films’ distribution set up, but also mirrors today’s paradigm shift of film financing in the digital era .
“The changing film financing and consumption models are also changing people’s desire for film on the silver screen. This is true mostly for the younger generation. We have to work harder to give them back that eagerness to go to the movies,” he said.
For details about all films and projects at Nordic Film Market, check: https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/nordic-film-market/
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