Five producers from the Nordics – and one UK based Norwegian producer – will participate with their upcoming projects in the ACE Producers’ workshop programme, starting next month.

18 experienced producers from 16 countries are selected to participate in the 34th edition of ACE Producers’ annual workshop programme.

Throughout 2024 and 2025, the selected producers will attend three workshops, aimed and designed to move the projects with which they applied forward. After completing the programme, these new producers will join the established ACE Network.

In early October, the ACE Producers’ training starts off with a workshop in Leiden in the Netherlands, dedicated to content development. The second workshop will be held in Warsaw in November, where the producers are offered advice on financing strategies for their projects. The third workshop, taking place in Süd-Tirol in 2025, looks at the participants’ business strategies. This last workshop will be immediately followed by the ACE Annual Reunion in Zagreb, where they will officially join the ACE Network.

The Nordics are represented with producers from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Norwegian producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar from Eye Eye Pictures participates with the project Slave, directed by Stefan Faldbakken. Berentsen Ottmar is not least known for producing Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in The World(Verdens verste menneske, 2021), and is currently in production with Trier’s new film Sentimental Value. She also recently produced the winner of the Caméra d'Or award for best first feature at this year’s Cannes festival, Armand by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel.

From Finland, producer Jani Pösö from It's Alive Films brings the project Memory Lane, directed by Teemu Nikki. Having co-founded the production company with the director, Pösö has produced several of Nikki’s films, such as The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic (Sokea mies joka ei halunnut nähdä Titanicia, 2021), Euthanizer(Armomurhaaja, 2017) and Lovemilla (2015).

Iceland’s Heather Millard of Compass Films recently produced Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot), which opened this year’s Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, as well as the same director’s short O from the Orizzonti competition in Venice earlier this month. She participates with the project Shitballs by Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir, whose directional debut Band from 2022 was also produced by Millard.

From Sweden, Fox in the Snow Films’ Olivier Guerpillon is selected with the project CAR:Y, for which the director is to be confirmed. French-Swedish Guerpillon recently co-produced Quiet Life, a joint venture by France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Estonia and Finland from this year’s Venice’s Orrizonti section, directed by Greece’s Alexandros Avranas.

Returning to Norway, producer Janne Hjeltnes from The Global Ensemble Drama participates with a project by the working title First Aid for Killers, directed by Bobbie Peers. Hjeltnes co-founded the company with director Per-Olav Sørensen in 2021, and among her producer credits is the recent Netflix series Midsummer Night (Midtsommernatt), as well as the features Royalteen (2022) and Royalteen: Princess Margrethe (2023) for the same streaming platform.

Although Kamilla Hodøl from Elation Pictures participates as a producer from the United Kingdom, the UK based Norwegian also deserves to be mentioned. She will attend with the project Weightlessness, directed by Simon Cartwright. Their previous collaboration includes the BAFTA nominated animated short Manoman from 2015. Most recently, Hodøl produced Icelandic director Thordur Palsson’s feature debut The Damned, starring Odessa Young, Joe Cole and Lewis Gribben.

“We are excited about this new group of producers, from sixteen different countries and from very different backgrounds, joining the ACE Network. With each of these experienced independent producers and their individual expertise and know-how, the ACE Network will grow stronger, providing a solid basis for successful European co-productions,” says ACE Producers’ director and head of studies, Jacobine van der Vloed.