13/05/2009

The pan-Nordic production and distribution organisation Nordisk Film & TV Fond announced yesterday the launch of Nordic High Five, a new distribution support initiative.

Set to be operational as of July 1, 2009, Nordic High Five is a three-year scheme developed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond CEO Hanne Palmquist, in collaboration with the five art house Nordic distributors Camera Film (Denmark), BioRex (Finland), Green Light Films (Iceland), Arthaus (Norway) and NonStop Entertainment (Sweden). It is specifically designed to support theatrical distribution of Nordic films within the Nordic region, outside their national territories.

The slate support of five selected films is partly reimbursable, unlike Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s existing distribution support for single titles, where support is not reimbursable. “Very few Nordic films cross the borders. Can the pattern be broken? Initiatives like these are the best tools we have,” said Kim Foss, managing director of Camera Film.

The five first Nordic films under the High Five label are: Ruben Östlund’s Swedish film Involuntary [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Hemmendorff
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], supported for its theatrical release in Denmark; Calle Åstrand and Mats Lindberg’s Swedish comedy Kenny Starfighter, for its release in Finland; Nicolas Winding Refn’s Danish film Valhalla Rising, for its release in Iceland; Klaus Härö’s Finnish film Letters to Father Jacob [+see also:
trailer
film profile], for its release in Norway; and Baltasar Kormákur’s Icelandic film White Night Wedding [+see also:
trailer
film profile], for its release in Sweden.

In a separate statement, Nordisk Film & TV Fond also announced that it had just signed a new five-year contract (through 2014) with the Nordic Council of Ministers to strengthen the position of Nordic film and television productions on the international marketplace. The Fund’s current annual budget of DKK 70m will remain the same, but Nordisk Film & TV Fond also received an additional DKK 1m to market Nordic films and talents internationally.