Sagafim plans to produce in Scandi languages with extended Sky Studios deal

The renewal of the development and distribution deal with Comcast-owned Sky Studios will allow the Icelandic company to expand into Scandinavian and English language projects.

Under the multi-year deal, initially signed for two years in 2019 and now renewed, Sky Studios will continue to provide development funding for scripted series produced by Sagafilm, and keep its first-look on distribution, handled by NBCUniversal Global.

“Sky Studios have been great partners and we’re excited to continue our collaboration. This extended deal will allow us to expand our development of international projects, beyond our Icelandic slate,” Kjartan Thor Thordarson, CEO at Sagafilm Nordic told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “We are already very active in international co-productions with Scandinavia, Benelux, Switzerland, Poland, Romania among others, and have projects with UK/US partners in English language. Our ambition now is to step up our Scandinavian game by producing in the rest of the Nordics, where we find good stories, not necessarily with a link to Iceland,” added Thordarson, who mentioned that the first Scandinavia production will soon be announced.

Recent premium Scandinavian dramas co-produced by Beta Film co-owned Sagafilm, include the climate thriller Thin Ice, produced by Sweden’s Yellow Bird for C More/TV4 and Icelandic pubcaster RÚV.

So far three Icelandic series have benefitted from the Sky Studios deal:

• Crime drama Sisterhood - 2021 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize nominee (CLICK HERE) commissioned by Iceland’s VOD service Síminn with Nent Group’s Viaplay, which boasted a record launch on Síminn in April (over 210,000 viewers in its premier week).
• the upcoming crime thriller Signals commissioned by Iceland’s Channel 2 (Stöð 2), which won Best Pitch at London’s C21 Summit 2019.
• A third TV show yet to be announced.

Sky Studios’ Director of International Scripted Jason Simms said the renewed collaboration with Sagafilm is part of the UK company’s strategy to double down its investment in European content and to strengthen its partnership with leading content creators.

The creative home of Sky Originals, such as the Emmy-winning Chernobyl, Sky Studios is the co-financing and production arm of Comcast-owned Sky group, whose content will soon be available on the new giant streaming service SkyShowtime, set to launch in the Nordics in 2022.

One of Iceland’s oldest production and servicing groups, Sagafilm sold 25% of its shares to Germany’s Beta Film group in 2020 and is now part of Beta Nordic Studios.

The company’s recent hit series include RÚV’s political satire The Minister starring Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, which won three TV awards including Best TV series and Best Actor at the last national Edda film & TV awards.

Sagafilm’s neo noir Stella Blomkvist season 2 commissioned by Síminn and Viaplay, premiered on the Icelandic streamer September 30. Red Arrow International handles global sales.