Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s AI theme year 2024 was launched during an AI-focused edition of TV Drama Vision in Gothenburg.

A number of sessions at Gothenburg Film Festival TV Drama Vision studied various sides of AI. The Fund’s CEO Liselott Forsman announced the Fund’s theme year “Talent in the Age of AI” at the panel “What About AI?” moderated by Johanna Koljonen. The main panel consisted of Artistic Director Seriencamp Gerhard Maier, Vice President Drama ZDF Studios Robert France and producer Kateryna Vyshnevska.

“During an AI panel at the Helsinki Script event in June, the same trio also inspired the Fund’s theme year”, said Forsman.

“Originally the AI idea came to us a year ago at the Gothenburg award party, when a group of us delegates pondered upon how little was talked about AI at that time. Then came the Chat GPT boom, and suddenly AI was debated everywhere. Even though AI is on so many agendas now, it’s quite hard to navigate in its fast evolving many landscapes. We want to help the Nordic audiovisual professionals navigate in what is happening and what should happen, especially concerning industry tools and rights. One cannot afford not to know”.

During the theme year “Talent in the Age of AI” the Fund will dive into AI concerns and potentials by research on available creative AI tools and needs, by discussing copyright issues across Nordic borders, arranging talks and sharing AI industry info packages online.

One of the first steps during the theme year is the Fund’s research focusing on AI in scriptwriting. It is planned by Danish Anton Breum, who apart from being a scriptwriter himself, also holds a master’s degree in political science from Copenhagen University and Sciences Po Paris:

“Our survey asks how AI is currently used and percieved by screenwriters in the Nordics. We also want to know what writers need when facing AI and how we best can support those needs. As an industry, we need these discussions now, to make sure that AI-adaptation ultimately does more good than it does harm.”

AI was in focus from the very start of the Gothenburg Film Festival. On Sunday evening Another Persona - an AI generated version of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, screened at Draken Cinema. In the AI version Alma Pöysti plays Liv Ullman’s character (Elisabet Vogler). When asked how the virtual experience was, Alma Pöysti told the Fund: “It was wonderful to see that living actors truly are still needed in films”.

To read more about the cinematic experiment: CLICK HERE.

At TV Drama Vision, the first full day ended with Creative Film and TV Consultant Tatjana Samopjan’s presentation “Rediscovering Life - Storytelling in the age of AI”. The session took the delegates in the room on a personal journey that clearly communicated how life-experience and the quality of human perception resonate on a deep level when stories are created.

During the second day’s afternoon session on AI “Steve against the Machine - AI in Development”, Executive of Banijay Steve Matthews first commented on a script idea from a (human) commissioner’s point of view, after which Director of Sales & Series Acquisitions from Nordisk Film Jes Brandhøj prompted his AI tool to do the same. In the end, moderator Marieke Muselaers, concluded that the outcome was not “man against machine”, as some ideas did connect the two.

The Fund continues its AI discussions the whole year from the perspective of Nordic talents, both from the view of those creating content and those producing and post-producing it.

If you are interested in taking part in the Fund’s AI theme year, please contact Mathias K. Ferre at mathias@nftvfond.com.