Tri Art Film Joins Nordic High Five

The distribution initiative Nordic High Five was launched in July 2009 to raise awareness and audience attendance of non-domestic Nordic films in the region. The initiative runs parallel to the Fund's ordinary distribution support scheme for single titles. So far, 20 Nordic titles have been released as part of the scheme, which offers reimbursable slate support. The biggest hit so far is the Danish documentary film Armadillo, released by Arthaus, which reached 40,000 admissions in Norway. Another three titles were released by Arthaus: Sweden's Burrowing, The Ape and Finland's Steam of Life. Next on the company's line-up are the Finnish Le Havre, Sweden's She Monkeys and Play, plus the Icelandic Volcano.

In Denmark, Camera Film released the Swedish films Involuntary, Easy Money, and the Norwegian comedy A Somewhat Gentle Man that sold most tickets (10,843). "This is a very good result for a Norwegian film in any time of the year," said Camera Film's managing director Kim Foss. Upcoming Nordic releases include Happy Happy, Oslo, August 31 and Le Havre.

Finland's BioRex handled Sweden's Glowing Stars, Easy Money, and Denmark's Armadillo and In a Better World. Easy Money and In a Better World were the biggest successes (over 14,000 admissions each). Next Nordic titles on Bio Rex's line-up are the Danish comedy hit Clown-The Movie and Norway's Happy, Happy.

Iceland's Greenlight Films released Denmark's Antichrist, R, Armadillo, Submarino, In a Better World and Sweden's Easy Money, the biggest hit with 6,500 admissions. Other Nordic titles confirmed for distribution include the Finnish sci-fi spoof movie Iron Sky.

Sweden's NonStop released Iceland's White Night Wedding, and the Danish titles R and Deliver us from Evil. Tri Art Films will pick up the Nordic High Five flag with the Norwegian films Oslo, August 31^st and Sons of Norway set to open by the end of 2011-early 2012. "I am very happy to be joining Nordic High Five, said Tri Art Film's managing director Mattias Nohrborg (photo). ‘The issue of increasing and strengthening the Nordic distribution of Nordic films has always been important to me. I have always been ashamed that we don't distribute our fellow neighbours' best films and last year, I became even more aware of this as many good films from the other Nordic countries were not picked up for distribution in Sweden."

Arthaus' managing director Svend B. Jensen said that Nordic High Five has given his company "the opportunity to think long term, not only on a film by film basis". "It is also a great network that allows us distributors to constantly and almost systematically recommend films to each other and keep each other updated on interesting upcoming national films. Also, the slate funding has given us the opportunity to launch the Nordic films with larger P&A budgets." His opinion was shared by Bio Rex Distribution's Ilkka Matila. "Nordic High Five has enabled us for the first time to make long term plans for releasing Nordic films. We also have been able to promote our films in a more effective way than before and the audience awareness has grown after every film." Green Light Films' Isleifur Thorhallsson also said: "As we are the only distributor in Iceland focusing on non-Hollywood films, Nordic films now have a bigger share of the non-Hollywood pie in Iceland."

The Nordic Hive Five initiative will last until July 2013.

As partners to Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the five Nordic High Five distributors also collaborate on the promotion of the Nordic Council Film Prize and its itinerary mini-festival in the Nordic region. This year's nominees will be announced on August 23.