Spotlight on great Nordic projects pitched at this year’s Cartoon Movie

It’s a wrap for the 2024 edition of this year’s Cartoon Movie (5-7 March). As usual, a strong contingent of Nordic animation professionals attended the Bordeaux-based gathering, and eight promising feature-length projects from the region were pitched to the industry reps in attendance.

Here, we take a closer look at especially four of them: Niko – Beyond the Northern Lights (Niko ja Myrskyporojen arvoitus), Super Charlie, Finding Home and Pesta, the recipient of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (a cash prize worth €20,000).

Helmed by Hanne Berkaak (who is co-writing the script with Sofia Lersol Lund), Pesta aims to intercept an audience of young adult viewers aged 16-25. It is a co-production spearheaded by Norway’s Mikrofilm AS with Lucie Bolze for France’s Xilam Films and Kristine Knudsen for Germany’s Knudsen Pictures.

The second draft of the script is in the works, with the story being “still in flux”. Pesta is set in 1349’s Norway. In the midst of the Black Plague, a religious noble girl transforms into Pesta, the plague incarnated, to save her outlaw pagan lover. The creative team has chosen animation to tell this tale, owing to “its ability to exaggerate character appearances and reflect the magical worldview of the Middle Ages”, capable of “transporting audiences to the world of 1349’s Norway in a way that live action cannot”.

The backdrop is that of human history’s deadliest pandemic, which swept through Europe from 1348 to 1353, wiping out up to 60% of the population, and triggering rapid and far-reaching social changes. In Norway, the church and the nobility lost their grip on power, resulting in a collapse of the class system and improved conditions for ordinary people, who gained access to their own land, better wages, and a better diet.

Mikrofilm’s Tonje Skar Reiersen and Lise Fearnley tell NFTVF they are “at a thrilling stage of this project” and feel “ready to bring it to the market”. “With Pesta, our aim is to break new grounds for Nordic feature animation. An animated romantic horror film for young adults is not something you see every day. But the quality and relevance of the story makes us certain of the film’s potential,” they add.

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Coming up next is the Finland-led project Niko – Beyond the Northern Lights, produced by Anima Vitae and co-produced by Animaker (Finland), Ulysses Films (Germany), Moetion Films (Ireland) and A. Film Production (Denmark). Budgeted at €7.2 million and aimed to viewers aged 5-12, in this new instalment of the popular saga the young reindeer leaves his family behind to take his place next to his father, Prancer, on Santa’s Flying Forces. For Niko, it’s a dream coming true: to become a hero, like his father. Unexpectedly, an unknown challenger called Stella arrives to compete for Niko’s spot.

Munich-based Global Screen sold the picture to over 80 countries, including key territories such as Benelux, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Turkey and South Korea. More recently, the firm sold it to former Yugoslavia and North America via Viva Kids.

Animaker producer Antti Haikala tells NFTVF he was glad to present “Niko’s latest adventures”, promising the same level of excitement and the presence of “some new fun characters”.

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Meanwhile, A. Film Production is also involved as one of the co-producers of Jon Holm­berg’s 3D, family-orientated comedy Super Charlie, co-directed with Karsten Kiilerich. The feature is being produced by Gustav Oldén for Nordisk Film Production (Sweden) and co-produced by Slugger Film (Sweden), pubcaster SVT (Sweden), Film i Skåne (Sweden), and Nordisk Film Distribution (Denmark).

Based on Camil­la Läckberg’s titular book series, it follows Wille, who has always dreamt of becoming a superhero and fighting crime alongside his father. His dream is shattered when Wille’s baby brother, Charlie, is born. Charlie gets all the attention, and on top of that – he has superpowers.

Taking part in the pitching forum gifted the project “a flying start going out in the world”, Oldén tells us. “We are half way through production, working hard for the Swedish theatrical release planned at the end of 2024. Then Norway, Denmark, Finland and the rest of the world will follow.” At Cartoon, the creative team showed some of the latest clips “coming straight out of the studio”.

“Super Charlie is already financed, so the fact that the film has been picked for a market that is solely dedicated to animated features, has been a great advantage for the film’s life cycle outside of the Nordic countries,” adds Anders Mastrup, of A. Film Production.

Previously, TrustNordisk’s Susan Wendt presented the flick at the AFM and EFM. She confirmed that her outfit sold the project to the UK (via Kaleidoscope), Vietnam (via Blue Lantern Corp), the Baltic countries (via Estin Film), former Yugoslavia (via MCF Megacom) as well as Hungary and Romania (via ADS Service Ltd).

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Finally, Finding Home is a project in concept staged by Lillian Løvseth for Norway’s Trollfilm. The 2D/3D family friendly pic centres on a musk ox calf called Musky, who is trying to find his way home. After he has been captured by hunters and transported from Greenland to the unwelcoming Norwegian mountain Dovre, this sweet, heartbroken ox calf believes that his family is waiting for him in Greenland, and becomes determined to find his way home. Blinded by his strong hope and belief, he sets out on a dramatic, yet magical journey.

The creative team, made up of director Anja Mánou Hellem, artist Alexan­dria Neonakis and writers Trond MortenKris­tensen Venaasen and Anja Mánou Hellem, bills it as “a story about finding your place in a new and unfamiliar world, when all you know and love has been taken from you”.

Løvseth says that Cartoon offered a fantastic opportunity to pitch Finding Home to the international industry reps in attendance. “Even though we are at an early stage, we embraced the opportunity to get solid feedback and advice. Besides, Cartoon Movie is also a great casual meeting point where we can meet and forge new partnerships,” she adds.

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The other four Nordic projects showcased at the French gathering were Mehdi Avaz and Christian Kuntz’s The Great North Adventure (Denmark), Malin Marmgren and Andreas Öhman’s Balls (Sweden), Martin Lund’s Kaja the Great(Norway/Belgium), and Mikkel B. Sandemose’s The Polar Bear Prince (Kvitebjørn) (Norway/Belgium).

The concept of Avaz and Kuntz’s 3D, family-orientated flick is based on the true story of the sailor Jens Munk. It is set at the beginning of the 17th century, when a Danish explorer and his eldest son died on a royal expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Ten years later, the remaining son and his best friend decide to travel in their footsteps to prove the Passage’s existence and to find the treasure his father was accused of stealing from the Danish king.

Marmgren and Öhman are working together on a family-friendly, feel-good story about “friendship and fulfilling dreams” seen “through the eyes of the most meaningless of balls”, namely Red, a ball bit ball and Yellow, a dog-phobic tennis ball.

Lund and screenwriter Thorkild Schrumpf are developing a very original story, told from the perspective of a small cancer cell called Kaja. She is tired of being the only one who cannot divide and make copies of herself. When even her best friend manages to replicate, she sets out on a perilous journey to find a way to mutate.

Now in production, Sandemose’s latest endeavour (penned with Maja Lunde) centres on Liv, a girl who longs to escape the forest where she lives. One day, she meets a white polar bear and decides to follow him. In his ice castle, a warm friendship blossoms between the two, a friendship that could turn into love. The bear is indeed Prince Valemon, enchanted by a sorceress – bear by day, man by night. TrustNordisk has already sold the picture to several territories including the five Nordic countries and the Benelux region.