The Lost Leonardo’s producer Elk Film strengthens international ties

The deal with London-based production, sales and UK theatrical distribution group Dogwoof covers the development of 8-10 ambitious docu features and series, co-financed by the Danish state investment fund Vækstfonden, in its first foray into documentary.

Dogwoof and Elk Film will also co-produce the projects, with the UK group’s T-Dog Fund acting as financier on selected projects.

The upcoming projects will be evaluated by Elk Film CEO Andreas Dalsgaard (director of The War Show, The Great Game, Afghan Muscles, and producer among others of the critically acclaimed The Lost Leonardo), Dogwoof’s CEO Anna Godas and Head of Distribution and Acquisition Ali Harbottle.

The deal comes on the heels of the two companies’ successful collaboration on Andreas Koefoed’s The Lost Leonardo, sold by Dogwoof to Sony Classics for multiple territories.

“Dogwoof has been aggressively growing its financing and production arm in the last few years. Elk is the first of several production partnerships we're working on,” said Godas. “The purpose here is to partner with like-minded entrepreneurs with growth ambitions, open to looking beyond the usual commissioning or co-production models. It’s about finding the optimal balance between traditional models and more innovative funding approaches.”

Dalsgaard who founded Elk Film in 2013 with editor Nicolás Nørgaard Staffolani added: “Elk Film’s focus is to develop high profile productions with a global reach, and this partnership helps provide the funding and sales know-how we’re looking for to expand our position internationally. With a strong public funding system behind us in Scandinavia, Elk Film has a proven ability to bridge the best of both private and public funding in the rapidly expanding market for reality-based storytelling.”

In a separate move illustrating its global ambitions, Elk Film has also signed a deal with CAA Media Finance for the US sales and packaging company to handle its next doc set in the art world.

The yet untitled project which was pitched at CPH:FORUM will follow a Swiss art dealer and a Russian Oligarch, caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money. The project in development is described as “an inside story of an international billion dollar game where power is the ultimate currency.” Dalsgaard will both direct and producer, together with The Lost Leonardo’s French co-producer Christoph Jörg of Pumpernickel Film.

The reception of the new project at CPH:DOX has been incredible,” told Dalsgaard to nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “CAA is handling the remake rights for The Lost Leonardo. There is a lot of interest from Hollywood, so it makes sense to package everything with CAA as the new title also holds great remake potential,” he said.

Elk Film’s slate also includes Kristoffer Poulsen and Christian Als‘s The Daughter of Genghis, about Gerel Byamba, who founded a nationalist feminist NGO to bring Mongolia back to its former glory. The project co-produced by Sweden’s Mantaray Film with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond, is due to premiere in 2023.

Elk Film’s separate deals with Dogwoof and CAA Media Finance were first announced in Variety.