Sales agents are optimistic as TV acquisition executives are coming back to the negotiation tables, as shown by the higher presence of world buyers (up 200 from 2009 to nearly 3,500) according to figures from market organisers Reed Midem. "Sales were fine for us in 2009, and after a slight slowdown in early 2010 - which is normal - business is starting to pick up again," said Helen Aurø, Head of DR International Sales who is launching no less than 25 new finished programmes in Cannes, plus 5 to 10 programmes in production. Those include the 24x25' Christmas calendar TV series for kids The Pact (Pagten) by Jesper W Nielsen, and the Finnish documentary film Freetime Machos by Mika Ronkainen, both supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Sharing DR International Sales MIP TV stand for the second year is SVT Sales team headed by Karin Tideström. New documentaries on the company's line up include Facing Genocide about Khieu Samphan's trial in Cambodia for his role in the Pol Pot regime, The Genius and the Boys, about a Nobel Prize Winner who turns out to be a paedophile and The Regretters about two middle-aged persons who regret having done a sex-change operation. All three are supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Nordic World has 12 new programmes on offer, including NRK's 3x59' crime series Goodnight Darling (Godnatt elskede), based on a novel by Fredrik Skagen, and Bernadotte-a Royal Family, a 2x45' documentary by Emmy-awarded Gregor Nowinski, produced by TV4 and open for pre-sales.
NonStop Sales will have the market premiere of the Icelandic crime series The Cliff (Hamarinn). The 2x90' or 4x54' series focuses on a Reykjavik crime detective sent to a small rural community to help a policewoman investigate a suspicious accident. The Pegasus production is supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Other Non Stop titles include the local Nordic box office hits The Wedding Photographer (Sweden), What Goes Around (Denmark), Magic Silver (Norway) and the Polish/German Piggies, winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Cinéma Européen des Arcs, France.
TrustNordisk has four documentaries on offer (Ghost of Cité Soleil, Mikael Laudrup-A Football Player by Jorgen Leth, My Father from Haifa and Videocracy), seven arthouse films (including Brotherhood and the prison drama R, released theatrically in Denmark this month), seven mainstream films and TV series, such as Jacob Tuesen's 5x42' series The Left Wing Gang (Blekingegade) supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and five new children's films of which the current Danish hit Father of Four in Japanese Mode (over 400,000 admissions).
TrustNordisk is sharing its MIP TV stand with Svensk Filmindustri, attending MIP TV with ten new programmes. Heading Svensk's line up is The Sacrifice, the third part of the trilogy by Katherine Windfeld, a follow up to the successful The Crown and The Regicide. The TV drama produced by Anna Croneman and supported by the Fund will not be available before February 2011. Svensk is also selling the Norwegian Varg Veum crime series and the Swedish series The Glass Devil about detective Inspector Huss.
For the first time at MIP TV with her new company LevelK, Tine Klint will introduce a new Film noir label featuring Scottish award-winning film Crying with Laughter and the Russian film The One who Switches off the Light, recently licensed to France (Movieon), Italy (Kinovista) and Poland (Neovision). Klint will also bring the successful TV2 Denmark series Park Road (Lærkevej), supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.