05/02/2010

The 11th Nordic Film Market (NFM) – held parallel to the Göteborg International Film Festival – kicked off yesterday and will run through February 7. Eighteen new Nordic films and 17 works in progress are screening to international buyers, producers and festival programmes.

“We have a record 300 guests participating in the market and our TV drama seminar, Meeting Point Television,” said NFM manager Cia Edström. Several professionals are attending for the first time, such as Jeff Deuchmann (IFC Films, US), Wolfgang Carl (Tiberious Films, Germany), Pim Hemerling (Wild Bunch, Netherlands), Alex ter Beek (Living Colour Entertainment, Netherlands) and Takashi Niwa (Pioniwa Film, Japan).

World premieres include the latest films by Josef Fares (Balls), Per Fly (The Woman who Dreamt of a Man) and Johan Brisinger (Among Us), as well as the directorial debut of Polish-born filmmaker living in Sweden, Agnieszka Lukasiak (Between Two Fires).

Edström and her team were spoilt with quality submissions for the Works in Progress sessions, and selected 17 (compared to 12 last year). Ten are debut features, such as the much awaited Sound of Noise by Swedish filmmaking duo Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (sold by Wild Bunch), and Jalmari Helander’s Rare Exports, the feature-length version of the Finnish filmmaker’s cult short film.

Experienced filmmakers will be on hand to present their latest works, including Johan Kling (Trust Me) and Hannes Holm (Behind Blue Skies) of Sweden and Icelandic directors Valdis Óskarsdóttir (King’s Road) and Olaf de Fleur (Polite People).