This year's five Nordic producers who will take part in the ?Producers on the Move' networking initiative in Cannes (May 15-18) are the up-and-coming Christian Rank (Miso Film, Denmark), Annika Sucksdorff (Helsinki Filmi, Finland), Davið Óskar Ólafsson (Mystery Island, Iceland), Lizette Jonjic (Migma Film, Sweden), and the more established Asle Vatn (Friland Film, Norway). All hope to take advantage of this unique opportunity to build or expand their European network.
A former graduate from the Danish Film School, Christian Rank has produced several shorts including Young Man Falling, selected at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes 2007. Since 2008, he is one of the in- house producers at Miso Film where he has learnt "how to respect the money as much as the art". He's currently supervising the €11m psychological crime series Those Who Kill, supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Annika Sucksdorff has been working for Helsinki Filmi since 2006 and is a shareholder in the company since 2008. She has been actively developing ties with producers in Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Estonia and the UK, working as production manager on films such as JP Valkeapää's The Visitor, Joe Wright's Hanna, and associate producer on Dome Karukoski's Forbidden Fruit and his upcoming Lapland Odyssey.
Davið Óskar Ólafsson set up Mystery Island a couple of years ago with two fellow graduates from Ebeltoft European Film College. So far, he has produced Country Wedding and King's Road, two feature films directed by his mother, the renowned film editor Valdis Óskarsdóttir, made in close collaboration with Vesturport theatre group. His projects include the feature debut of Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson (award-winner of the short film Rattlesnakes).
Lizette Jonjic joined Migma Film in 2004. She has been nurturing the talent of filmmaker Håkon Liu since his very first short film Phantom Pain, to his feature debut Miss Kicki starring Pernille August. She is currently developing his second feature film Kill Me, Fuck Me, Hug me (working title), a passionate love story for teenagers, set in Northern Sweden.
Asle Vatn co-founded Friland Film, one of Norway's leading production companies, in 2002 with Christian Fredrik Martin. The company has close links with Sandrew Metronome and has had a handful of critical and box office hits such as Tommy's Inferno, Uro, and most recently Sara Johnsen's Upperdog. Vatn is currently working on two major international productions: Morten Tyldum's Headhunters and Jens Lien's Theory and Practise, both supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.