Nordic film sales reps on the EFM and changing business under Covid

More than 780 films - including around 30 Nordic films - are set to premiere at the European Film Market (EFM) running March 1-5, and a record 470 companies from 60 countries have signed up for the first virtual event, including 200 companies attending for the first time.

Deprived on their usual stands at the EFM’s Martin Gropius Bau, sales agents of Nordic films are adapting to the new normal, making best use of the digital space and trying to support as best as possible global distributors affected by uncertainties around cinema re-openings and release dates.

Six top sales agents of Nordic scripted content tell us about their focus at the EFM and how the pandemic is affecting their business.


LEVELK, CEO Tine Klint
What will be your focus at the EFM?
TK: During EFM we will focus on networking and sales of four titles: we have the market premieres of the triple Sundance award-winning drama Hive (Kosovo/Switzerland/Macedonia/Albania) and the Finnish documentary The Red Ring by acclaimed director Joonas Berghäll (Steam of Life). We will also discuss the political thriller Lone Wolf (Australia) starring Hugo Weaving, and upcoming Danish animated feature Checkered Ninja 2, follow-up to the 2018 original hit.

How is the pandemic impacting your market and festival launch strategy and how do you create a buzz in the digital space?
TK: Our market strategy has changed completely, but we’re still looking into launching our films at the relevant festivals. How we “use to do it” before the pandemic is already very old news. The most effective way to create a buzz on a title in the crowded digital space is to use social media, close cooperation with producer and director teams, where a clear strategy was followed and deployed by all parties.

How are buyers behaving these days?
TK: Cleverly buying and generally speaking, we all focus more. The pandemic has also initiated a very clean division between the independent and mainstream films and each of their distribution possibilities - something that the digital shift slowly tried to implement.

NEW EUROPE FILM SALES, Managing Director Jan Naszewski
What will be your focus at the EFM?
JN: We are selling a slate of Nordic titles including Finland’s Any Day Now by Hamy Ramezan, competing at Generation K+, the Norwegian family animation Christmas at Cattle Hill, and the upcoming Icelandic supernatural drama Lamb starring Noomi Rapace (already pre-sold to over 40 countries). We want to sign deals but also catch up with distributors and platforms, to see what their needs are, and what their view of the future market is.

How is the pandemic impacting your market and festival launch strategy?
JN: There will be no major festivals between Berlin and Cannes in July, so it's hard to plan releases based on festivals. We're trying to find alternatives and figure out what future projects can be more sure shots. We're developing some of our own film ideas too.

How are buyers behaving these days?
JN: Buyers are screening, but I don't feel like theatrical buyers are in a rush. They have a backlog of films to release once the lockdown is over. I was very happy to see that once Poland opened cinemas on Feb 12, everything has been sold out, so it seems that there's an appetite among audiences to return to the big screen.

We have to be patient and clever about our sales and acquisitions strategy, and think about both theatrical and VOD buyers. Unfortunately, the titles that are hurt the most are debut dramas that could be labelled as "festival films". They have a real problem now that the festival exposure opportunities are limited.

PICTURE TREE INTERNATIONAL, Co-Managing Director Yuan Rothbauer
What will be your focus at the EFM?
YR: We will be focusing on the following films: Mission Ulja Funk (Germany, Luxembourg, Poland), which will play at Berlinale Generation, Persona Non Grata (Denmark), which just premiered at Gothenburg’s Nordic film competition, Bulado (Netherlands) which will premiere at the New York Children IFF, the recent pick up Risks & Side Effects (Austria), and Contra (Germany), which will be released in Germany 2021 Q4, by Constantin Film.

How is the pandemic impacting your market and festival launch strategy and how do you create a buzz in the digital space?
YR: Our strategy itself hasn't change that much. What has changed is the format of market and festivals and us moving from a physical to a virtual environment. We are all still adjusting and improving our ways to present and communicate given the virtual element will remain an increasingly important factor in our festival and market calendar beyond the pandemic times.

To create a buzz on a project, we work with trades and magazines online to advertise our films online, and of course, social media activity has also accelerated over the last year.

How are buyers behaving these days?
YR: The pandemic brings a lot of challenges to us, also to the buyers with varying degrees. Theatrical distributors are the most affected, while streamers and TV players are benefitting from the situation. The buyers we are in touch with, are overall still very positive that things will get better soon. Some of them stopped acquiring in 2020, but are now opening up again to look for new projects and finished films.

REINVENT STUDIOS, Sales & Marketing Director Helene Aurø
What will be your focus at the EFM?
HA: Our main focus will be on the following upcoming major Danish films Margrete -Queen of the North by Charlotte Sieling, The Pact by Bille August and Erik Poppe’s take on the Swedish classic The Emigrants. We will have market screenings of the Swedish family film Nelly Rapp, competing at Generation K+ and Norwegian horror Project Z by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, starring Eili Harboe (Thelma).

On the TV side, we’ll also have market screenings of the event Swedish/Danish crime drama Snow Angels, selected at Berlinale Series, the Norwegian crime series Outlier, Berlinale Series Market Select, and brand-new Norwegian thriller Catch and Release. So our slate is quite big and varied. We will also have a promo-reel of our upcoming titles.

How is the current pandemic impacting your market and festival launch strategy?
HA: We are present at the festivals and markets as if it was in real life. We try to do more online activity than usual, promoting our titles directly to the buyers. Our strategy is just to be more present and not to wait with the films or series.

How are film buyers behaving these days?
H.A.: Very nicely. The world seems to be alive again, and we feel sales are picking up also for theatrical. Broadcast and streaming activity has been going strongly all through the pandemic.

THE YELLOW AFFAIR, CEO Karoliina Dwyer
What will be your focus at the EFM?
KD: We will be focusing on the following four titles: the UK debut film Rose: A Love Story by Jennifer Sheridan which had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and will have its market premiere at the EFM. Then Gracious Night (Finland) is Mika Kaurismäki’s new film, shot during lock-down. The film world premiered at Tallinn’s Black Nights Competition and will have its market premiere at the EFM.

We will also show a footage and first stills of Welby Ings’ Punch (New Zealand) starring Tim Roth, currently in post-production. Finally Rūgangi by Max Currie is a LGBTQI+ drama TV series and feature film which won an audience award at Frameline San Francisco.

How is the pandemic impacting your market and festival launch strategy?
KD: The pandemic is mainly affecting our business based on what distributors are planning to do for the rest of 2021. But preparing for the market remains largely similar. Launching market premieres without the big screen is always a little disappointing, but distributors know what they want so we don’t have any concerns about that.

How are buyers behaving these days?
KD: The theatrical landscape remains very uncertain, and many distributors are faced with a bottleneck of films acquired and not yet released. Therefore, some companies are waiting to acquire films for 2022 and beyond.

TRUST NORDISK, CEO Susan Wendt
What will be your focus at the EFM?
SW: The focus will be to introduce a combination of finished films, not yet released, plus teasers and promos of upcoming titles presented in our promo-reel in a ‘special wrapping’.

We will of course be screening Ninjababy, selected at Generation14+ and SXSW. Apart from that, the distributors will among others be able to get a first look of The Marco Effect, based on Jussi Adler Olsen’s international best-seller and they will be able to enjoy Nicolai Coster Waldau’s cooking skills in A Taste of Hunger.

From the upcoming slate, we are excited to show a small teaser of The North Sea, an even more spectacular disaster movie from the creators of The Wave and The Quake, Peter Næss’ Nothing to Laugh About..and who knows if there might be some exiting information about Lars von Trier’s Exodus (Kingdom III)!

How is the current pandemic impacting your business and your market and festival launch strategy?
SW: In general, everything is changing from day to day. Like everyone, we have films that were originally scheduled for an autumn release, and that still lack a new local release date. Festivals/markets are changing their dates as well, with a big uncertainty if they will be online, hybrid or physical. This means that flexibility is key and the festival strategy for the films have to be evaluated again and again, in order to get the best possible timing between international launch and local release.

How are buyers behaving these days?
SW: Like everyone else, the buyers are also fed-up with the situation and looking forward to a point of being out there again, meeting each other in person. Generally-speaking, you can feel a bit of optimism. No one knows when cinemas are opening again in the different territories, but there is a belief that once the cinemas reopen, people will go. And a good example of that is Spain.