Ten Nordic Works in Progress, Meet the Streamers at Stockholm Industry Days

Daniel Espinosa will be on stage to pitch his project Madame Luna and to give a masterclass, alongside VIP guests Joachim Trier and Cary Joji Fukunaga.

This year’s on-site Stockholm Industry Days (November 16-18), held next to the Stockholm International Film Festival (November 10-21) is expecting over 350 industry professionals on top of 50 online delegates, invited to watch the recorded event shortly after the live sessions.

Head of Industry Erik Kull says the attendance is twice last year’s numbers, when the Stockholm event was held fully online. “This really shows that the film industry is ready to network again, after almost two long years,” he noted.

Detailing this year’s programme, Kull said his goal is mainly “to reach out both to the established and well-known Nordic film industry, as well as new voices in the film world, such as students and new directors.“

The young head of industry underlines the centrepiece Masterclasses with The Worst Person in the World’s Joachim Trier, No Time to Die’s Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Swedish-born filmmaker Daniel Espinosa’s talk on ‘Conquering Hollywood’ that should be inspirational for up and coming directors. Espinosa’s Marvel movie Morbius starring Jared Leto is due to premiere in Sweden January 28, 2022.

On November 16, some of the Nordics’ biggest streaming commissioners will be on stage for the panel ‘Change of Paradigms: Meet the Streamers’: HBO Max’s Christian Wikander, Netflix’s Jenny Stjernströmer, Amazon Prime Video’s Karin Lindström, and Nent Group’s Filippa Wallestam.

The same day, the session ‘You’re My Inspiration’, will offer an update of the Swedish Film Institute’s initiatives Moving Sweden, Wild Card, case studies of Ernst De Geer’s upcoming film The Hypnosis, Jenifer Malmqvist’s documentary Daughters, and a talk with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar’s young director Luàna Bajrami. The session will close with the announcement of the SFI’s 2021 Wild Cards winners.

Panels on November 17 will focus on ‘The Female New Wave’, the film region Film Stockholm AB, and the future of Swedish Film.

November 18 The Works in Progress session will consist of 10 Nordic productions looking for co-financing and distribution. Kull says the WiP selection ranges from small budget films to over €6m projects, as well as a TV series and a Swedish/Spanish co-production. “There will be something for everyone,” he said.

Two Swedish works in progress have received support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond:

• UFO Sweden from the collective Crazy Pictures, co-financed by SF Studios
• Mini Zlatan and Uncle Darling, directed by Christian Lo for Snowcloud Films, to be released by Scandinavian Film Distribution.

Major projects to be pitched include:

• Madame Luna directed by Daniel Espinosa for Momento Film Sweden and Nordisk Film, co-produced by Denmark’s Adomeit Film and Italy’s Dugong Films. The story of a notorious female human trafficker, forced to become a refugee is based on a script by Maurizio Brauncci (Dogman, Gomorrah).
• Baby Pyramid directed by Cecilie McNair for Nordisk Film Denmark is backed by the DFI’s New Danish Screen. Danica Curcic plays a fertility doctor who makes questionable decisions, as she struggles with her own infertility
  

Other works in progress are:

• To Practice by Laurens Pérol
• To Set a Prisoner Free by Joachim Vogel
• Den siste våren by Franciska Seifert Eliasse
• Dialogpolisen by Susanna Edwards
• La Vida Es Un Musical by Patty Pajak
• Lykke Post Partum by Alexe Landgren and Karen Helene Haugaard.

For further details, check: www.stockholmfilmfestival.se