Wasserman is currently short film commissioner at the Swedish Film Institute; she will join SF Studios later this year. Wasserman has produced films both in the US (Bluebird) and in Sweden (Avalon, The Quiet Roar) and founded the arthouse-oriented brand Idyll in 2009. She is executive producer of Ali Abbasi’s Un Certain Regard entry Border.

Wasserman said: “My background is working with directors with a vision; I’m looking forward to bringing my expertise to SF Studios where I have a chance to work on bigger commercial projects. My interest has always been reaching a larger audience with my films.”

Wasserman will report directly to Annika Sucksdorff, Head of Film in Sweden. Her hiring follows a string of appointments across the Nordics, such as Michel Schønnemann (Bridgend), Julie Rix Bomholdt (The Return) and Joakim Hansson (Falk, The Lawyer) as well as the alliance with Harmonica Films (The Hunters).

Tim King, EVP Production at SF Studios told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “In all our markets, we produce films and TV dramas, except our international division headed by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, which focuses on mainstream feature film. We see a lot of growth in production and want to keep on top of the game by bringing in the best producers to feed our own distribution."

SF Studios’ other expansion areas are TV Drama where the group has tripled its output, going from 2 TV dramas produced four years ago to 5-6 today, and English language films from Nordic talent, based on original material or well-known Nordic IP. “We see a huge potential on the English language market,” continues King. “We want to be part of the journey of the brightest Nordic talent as they go out in the world, to make sure they make international projects but from their home base. It’s tough for some directors to be away from their families. We want to support them the best we can.”

Four international projects produced by SF Studios should go into production in 2019-20: the US adaption of A Man Called Ove starring Tom Hanks who is producing together with SF Studios, Horizon Line written by Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken (10 Cloverfield Lane), I am Victor written by James Bond’s Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, and the UK-set remake of Easy Money.

Among the most anticipated Nordic feature projects are Sweden’s Lasse Maja, The First Mystery by Josephine Bornebusch, which will be released next month, Britt-Marie Was Here by Tuva Novotny, based on Fredrik Backman’s best-selling novel, the third Bamse film and the recently greenlit Pelle No-Tail (Pelle Svanslös) based on Gösta Knutsson’s classic kids franchise.

SF also expects to soon greenlight Daniel Espinosa’ s new screen version of Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novel The Emigrants.

In Denmark, SF Studios will soon start production on GooseBoy, the retelling of Selma Lagerlöf’s beloved literary classic The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson to be directed by the celebrated Danish duo Wikke & Rasmussen. The Danish production outfit has also recently finished filming the comedy Out of Tune (De Frivillige) by Frederikke Aspöck (Rosita, Labrador) starring Jacob Lohmann, Søren Malling, Christopher Læssø and Anders Matthesen.

In addition, SF’s partly owned Norwegian production companies Filmkameratene and Motion Blur are busy respectively with Børning 3 by Hallvard Bræin and Amundsen by Espen Sandberg, both to be released in the next 18 months.

TV drama series scheduled for 2018-2019 include C More/TV4’s crime drama The Hunters, TV2 Charlie’s drama comedy Nursing School (Sygeplejeskolen), as well as repeat seasons of four TV series.