10/05/2013 - Partners since 2007 in international acquisition, with Finland's Future Film, the independent distributors wanted to 'strengthen the alliance and maintain its market position'

Nordic independent distributors Mis. Label (Denmark), Star Media Entertainment (Norway) and Noble Entertainment (Sweden), which have been partners since 2007  in international acquisition, have further consolidated their relationship, following Mis. Label and Star Media purchasing and now being 50-50 owners of Noble.

Now headed by Mis. Label’s managing director René Sørensen, the Swedish company has since 2002 released more than 600 films for theatrical and primarily video-dvd in local market – including its Finnish associate, Future Film, the four distributors control around 5% of the Scandinavian market. “The purchase is meant to strengthen our alliance and maintain our position in the market,” said Sørensen.

While Mis. Label was launched as a music distributor, to add cinema to its operation in 2007, the other companies started in video-dvd and have later included theatrical – “to cover all windows” Sørensen added – offering a line-up mixing mainstream with art-house and smaller genre films. Most recently the members of the alliance have most recently started to distribute domestic fare, or to actively co-produce local films.

Among upcoming releases from the four distributors are US directors Ron Howard’s Formula 1 actioner, Rush, David O Russell’s American Hustle with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale, Joel and Ethan Coen’s singer-songwriter drama Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman, which is in competition at Cannes.

On the local side Star Media – which was named Distributor of the Year at the Norwegian Video Festival, where its Lilyhammer won for Best Norwegian Television series – has recently invested in Thomas Wangsmo’s Into the Dark, while Mis. Lane is involved in Morten BH’s feature debut with Paprika Steen, and Lasse Spang Olsen’s action-comedy, reuniting comedians Jacob Haugaard and Finn Nørbygaard on the screen.