2025 put Nordic animation in the spotlight, and despite challenging markets the year saw many successes for Nordic productions. The report offers a Nordic industry angle into the year, and highlights exciting upcoming productions.
To read the Annual Report 2025: CLICK HERE.
Nordisk Film & TV Fond (NFTVF) received 220 applications in 2025. The total amount of NOK 139,266,204 was top financed to feature films, drama series and documentaries, and financed for distribution and dubbing, as well as industry initiatives.
Of the 80 production supports in 2025, the fiction projects span a wide variety of genres and themes, from light comedies, horror films and thrillers to family dramas and love stories, underscoring the continued richness and versatility of Nordic fiction. On the documentary side, there was a great ambition and diversity in the projects that confirmed the importance of the documentary genre in the democratic Nordic societies.
Like previous years, friendship was a recurring theme in the supported children & youth projects, often presented through new animated IPs, particularly for the youngest audiences. In contrast, many of the supported documentaries shed light on various kinds of upbringing, offering new perspectives on what it means to be young.
“Today’s complex and restless world offers too much polarised argumentation, as social media algorithms threaten democracies. Nordic films, series and documentaries that dare to delve deep, that enlighten and engage, are more needed than ever,” Liselott Forsman, CEO, concluded in her message in the annual report.
In 2025, over 90 Nordic titles won big and small prizes at festivals across the globe. International and national successes followed many NFTVF supported projects, like the Norwegian feature film Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi), which was awarded the Grand Prix in Cannes as well as several other awards. 2024 successes like Dreams and Love from the trilogy Sex Dreams Love (Sex Drømmer Kjærlighet) kept on winning. NRK and Maipo received the Creative Courage Award, a new award introduced by NFTVF to honour brave producing and commissioning, for Dates in Real Life. The Nordic Series Script Award went to writer Pelle Rådström for his series Pressure Point (Smärtpunkten). The Danish film Honey won prizes at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck and festivals like BUFF and Kristiansand International Film Festival, and CineKid.
Three documentaries with a 2025 premiere stand out with a remarkable international distribution outcome: Only on Earth, Facing War (Stoltenberg – Facing War) and Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Also, Mr Nobody Against Putin won close to 20 international awards, including the Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival. All three supported by NFTVF.
The Nordic Council Film Prize nominees were expanded to seven films. Out of four features and three documentaries, the Faroese inaugural nomination won the prestigious prize. The winners were Sakaris Stórá, Tommy Oksen, Mads Stegger and Jón Hammer for The Last Paradise On Earth (Seinasta paradís á jørð).
The Faroe Islands had a strong industry year. At NFTVF’s annual Nordic Talents event, Faroese director Maria Tórgarð, a graduate from Stockholm University of the Arts, was awarded the main Pitch Prize for her upcoming documentary Knots. Another Stockholm graduate, Sepehr Nosrati, was awarded the Special Mention, for his film project Snowfall in April.
There was a record number of applications for distribution in 2025, and as an industry effort to spread Nordic titles across borders, the budget for Distribution and Dubbing grew from NOK 9 million to NOK 10 million. While prior production support is not a requirement for receiving support for distribution or dubbing, many titles that previously received NFTVF’s support for production were distributed to other Nordic countries. For instance, the Icelandic feature film The Love That Remains (Ástin sem eftir er) and the Finnish animated feature Fleak (Fleak: Kekseliäs ystäväni).
NFTVF’s 2025 theme year Animation Collaboration focused on enabling solid, Nordic collaboration forms. NFTVF helped the producer network Nordic Animation build a lasting structure for its activities and home page, and the festival network Northern Animation Network (NAN) create a digital platform that showcases animation talents.
Among events supported through the industry initiative scheme was the Nordic Film Market at Göteborg Film Festival, Finnish Film Affair/Nordic Flair at the Helsinki International Film Festival, and Copenhagen TV Festival. The industry initiative budget increased by 20%.
The annual report is available in English and Norwegian.
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Nordisk Film & TV Fond invites Nordic graduating students to pitch their first professional project at NFTVF's popular industry event Nordic Talents. Apply now!
Half of the films that received support for distribution to other Nordic countries in Q1 are aimed at children and youth, as well as two of the eleven top financed productions.
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