Haugesund: The ‘Nordisk Stor Film Fond’ still in early stages of discussion, would have a €3m budget to support one to two Nordic blockbusters a year.

Speaking yesterday in Haugesund at the conference ‘The Nordic Bridge-how to strengthen Nordic content in the digital age’, Norway’s Culture Minister Linda Hofstad Helleland took the initiative to officially announce the idea for this new scheme, that would be administered by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, on behalf of Nordic film institutes.

Reiterating the Norwegian government’s full backing to film and TV drama, Helleland stressed the need in our digital world to “create new models of financing and distribution” to strengthen Nordic co-productions, and to improve the export of Nordic content.  “We must think of developing big films with artistic ambitions, that have the ability to attract larger audiences and widen the presence of Nordic film internationally,” said Helleland. She proposed for the new scheme to be discussed between the Ministers of Culture at the next Nordic Council ‘s session in November.

The Big Budget idea received overall positive feedback from industry delegates in Haugesund as funding would consist of extra public coin.  Claus Ladegaard, Head of Film Funding at the Danish Film Institute and one of the initiators of the Nordic Big budget Film Fund told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “We have to incentivize producers to have bigger ambitions in today’s market where middle films simply don’t work anymore.“ He was hopeful that the idea for such a scheme would reach a favourable political consensus given the urgency to take concrete measures in a fast changing media environment.

German model
Yesterday’s seminar was also an opportunity for European film bodies to compare their strategies in the digital age and collaborations with the Nordics. Peter Dinges, president of the European Film Agency Directors (EFAD) and CEO of Germany’s national film funding body Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) detailed the new German film levy on VOD providers located outside of Germany. The VOD levy ranges from 1.5% to 2.5% in the case of annual net turnover above €500,000, and is expected to generate €13 million a year. So far Amazon has agreed to comply, but Netflix and Apple have filed lawsuits. He urged his Nordic colleagues to join lobby groups to push for the integration of digital players in the new media landscape. 

Nordic model
Dinges was also adamant to stress the current trend of Nordic success in TV drama, and Nordic best practices, often used as models in Germany.

Roberto Olla, General Secretary of Eurimages stressed the increased collaboration of Nordic producers with other European (non-Nordic) countries (only 18% of 145 Nordic co-productions made between 2005-2016 were purely Nordic) as well as the exemplary level of loan repayments from Nordic films. For him, the Nordic success stems from a tradition of working harder and longer on the development stage compared to other EU countries, and to the storytelling combining emotions with a social or political message.

FUTURE
Asked by media analyst Johanna Koljonen how success could be sustained, Petri Kemppinen, head of Nordisk Film & TV Fond recommended training the younger generation on how to reach an audience, introducing more flexible distribution models and boosting the production of bigger films. Olla concurred with him: “We do need bigger films to drive the audience-especially youngsters - back into the cinema. Once in the cinema, they will want to discover other films.”