Selling Nordic animation - the magic recipe for attracting international distributors

Finnish favourite Niko & The Way to the Stars (Niko - Lentäjän poika), Danish Thomas Borch Nielsen’s Sunshine Barry & The Disco Worms (Disco Ormene), Reykjavik-based outfit GunHil’s Ploey: You Never Fly Alone (Lói: Þú flýgur aldrei einn), and another Icelandic animated feature, Legends Of Valhalla: Thor (Hetjur Valhallar: Þór), have been distributed in multiple territories.

“Nordic animation has a quality stamp,” says Tine Klint, Founder & CEO of Danish sales outfit LevelK, whose Danish animated hit Checkered Ninja 3 (Ternet Ninja 3) recently achieved the third largest opening weekend in Danish box office history. “The quality stamp is both that there is a strong story and strong character development, and there are different Nordic animation styles. The Nordic film institutes are supporting audience design and audience reach - so producers are aware at a very early stage of how to reach the audience.”

t’s a measure of the appeal of Nordic animation that international sales outfits like Global Constellation (formerly known as Global Screen) with their Niko - Beyond The Northern Lights (Niko ja myrskyporojen arvoitus), Studio 100 (whose slate includes Norwegian animated feature North (Reisen mot nord) from production outfit PictoryLand AS and due to be released by Norsk Filmdistribution in the Nordic market in November), and Playmaker Munich are so keen to have it on their slate.

The other side of this coin is, as Norwegian producer Tonje Skar Reiersen of Mikrofilm puts it, “in the Nordics, there are not that many sales agents”.

Although companies like TrustNordisk, currently selling Mikkel B. Sandemose’s The Polar Bear Prince (Kvitebjørn), and REinvent Studios, handling the Little Ghost Laban (Lilla Spöket Laban) films, represent some animated fare, it’s not their core business. For producers who have a Nordic distribution deal with SF (connected to REinvent) or Nordisk Film Distribution (linked to TrustNordisk), these two companies are viable options - but other producers are more likely to look elsewhere.

“From our point of view, we can only handle one completed animated film a year,” says Klint. “If we come out with too many animated titles, we cannot do adequate sales on all of them.”

Klint also points out that Nordic sales agents are being priced out of the market. The level of Nordic animation is so high that local sellers sometimes struggle to match the level of minimum guarantees that producers can secure internationally.”

Nordic producers with commercial animated projects often turn to German or French sales outfits who’ll put up generous MGs - and obviously this can be crucial for financing. These sales agents will also often have strong connections with leading festivals. The French companies are also prepared to take a punt on more artistic fare.

“If you’re with MK2, or Film du Losange, Charades, or Indie Sales, they are closer to the French market. They are closer to the French distributors, and can help you in that sense. They’re also closer to the big festivals,” says Skar Reiersen.

Speak to the international sellers, and they explain why they see an upside in handling Nordic animated fare.

“I knew that the Scandinavian producers are very good at what they’re doing; very experienced in terms of storytelling, character designs and also animation quality. They deliver projects for the entire family, aiming for Pixar/Disney as a target and trying to match that quality,” says Moritz Hemminger, managing director of The Playmaker Munich, whose current slate includes Gunnar Karlsson’s Ploey 2: The Legend of the Winds (Lóa - goðsögn vindanna).

The first Ploey film sold to more than 70 territories worldwide (“the most successful Icelandic film in terms of box office numbers abroad in Icelandic history,” Hemminger says). The follow-up has also pre-sold widely in advance of an expected 2027 delivery.

“That’s also the beauty of animation, that you can really pre-sell with a short teaser to several territories,” Hemminger reflects on the success in finding distributors for the Ploey films.

Nonetheless, some in the sector are warning of potential pitfalls ahead.

“There are just too many animated films on offer,” Solveig Langeland, the Norwegian-born Managing Director of Stuttgart-based Sola Media, which has successfully been selling family films for over 20 years, warns of the increasing over-saturation in the market.

In some territories, there are now up to 80 animated releases in a calendar year. And that, Langeland argues, is far too many.

“There is no business in that,” the Sola Media boss cautions. “You also have an over-supply of distributors who are bleeding because they don’t even have a weekend alone for an animated film.”

She argues that Nordic animated titles now need to be packaged and marketed both better and earlier if they are to continue breaking through internationally.

“Back in the day, we would have a trailer we would show six months before completion, but that is way too late. You need to have marketing assets a year before, so the distributor can start scheduling,” Langeland states.

Other observers counter that a process of natural selection is going on. It’s so hard to pull together finance that even some of the most promising titles struggle to find backing.

Sola Media tends to invest in projects at an early stage. Langeland will attend co-production markets including events like Haugesund to find new Nordic animated fare.

Despite the increased competition. Sola Media’s Nordic animated titles continue to sell - to find buyers. For example, Henrik M. Dahlsbakken’s A Mouse Hunt for Christmas (Hvis ingen går i fella), supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, has sold to North America as well as to various European territories, including Capelight Pictures in Germany and Paradis Films in France. In all, it has gone to around 40 territories.

Animated features are often re-voiced by local actors, big name celebrities, and sometimes even social media influencers. International audiences will therefore not always know where the films were produced. One reason Nordic animated IP traditionally travels well, though, is that the stories being told tend to have a universal quality. At the same time, film characters like Ploey and Niko are also still recognisably Nordic. The former is a golden plover trying to survive a vicious Artic winter, and the latter is one of Santa’s flying reindeer.

At the first Nordic Animation showcase in Haugesund recently, animated projects including Norwegian producer Skar Reiersen’s Pesta and Ploey 2: The Legend of the Winds (LÓA – Goðsögn vindann) were generating plenty of buzz.

Pesta is an example of Nordic animated IP not aimed at family or pre-school audiences, but trying to reach the slightly older teen demographic. Meanwhile, Danish animated documentary Flee (Flugt), sold by Israeli outfit Cinephil, is one title with significant arthouse and festival success with adult viewers.

Skar Reiersen points out that some Nordic animated IP is so strong that it doesn’t “really need a business model outside the Nordics”. Films can recoup through the local market on its own. Sluggerfilm in Sweden with its Bamse and Mamma Moo franchises is a good example of a company prospering through the local market.

“Some of these IPs might be a little incomprehensible to the outside world in a way,” Skar Reiersen also observes.

However, other Nordic producers prefer to look further afield. That’s why so many projects from the region are now being presented at pitching and co-production forum Cartoon Movie, where the Nordics have become the most prominent producing region after France and Spain.

“The outside world is more and more starting to pay attention to the films we produce, and the potential for growth is very big,” Skar Reiersen says.

“If we are able to make more animation aimed at different audience groups, with different looks, and in different genres, then the threat of over-saturation will be much less,” she puts an optimistic gloss on a market she believes will continue to grow.”