What will be your focus at Nordic Film Market?
Rikke Ennis: Besides A Man Called Ove and The Model screening at the market, we are very proud to introduce three new titles as Works in Progress. Across the Water, the latest film by Nicolo Donato should do well locally because it is based on a well know episode of WW2 when Jewish families travelled from Copenhagen to Gilleleje to escape to Sweden. With Nicolo’s stamp we believe the film has an international potential as well.
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Berlin is also promising for you with The Commune in official competition. Has the selection triggered new pre-sales?
RE: We have sold the film to more than 55 territories, including all key territories. The US is still to finalise.

How is the pre-sales market these days and how has that impacted the way you do business?
RE: The interest for Scandinavian films is still very strong. The wave has been going for a few years, but it just continues, and with A War nominated for an Oscar and The Commune in Berlin that keeps Scandi films on the fire. However competition is tougher today and buyers acquire fewer films. They simply do not take the same risks that they would take a few years ago with MGs.

Just like distributors we have become more careful and this is reflected in our line-up. That’s regrettable because we can’t bet on many new talents the way we used to do. We do take on board names, such as Magnus von Horn, but we are much more selective.

Another problem is talent drain to Hollywood. They stay there 3-4 years and we have to wait for them to come back. That’s not good enough; we have to be pro-active and think what works on the market, what ingredients turn a Nordic film into a success. We have therefore decided to slightly move away from pure sales to talent packaging and production. This is new for us. We will be more involved in early discussions with new players such as Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO who have an eye on Nordic talent. Instead of them stealing our talent, why not try to collaborate and use all talents and producers in Scandinavia?

Will you launch TrustNordisk Talent Agency?
RE: I like to think of our new venture as a mini-studio. 

Concretely how will this translate in your daily activities?
RE: It all starts with an idea. TrustNordisk will be more involved in content creation and packaging. We have sealed for instance a partnership with Brain Academy on the TV series Last Light. This is a first step into entering international TV drama. We are working closely with Brain Academy on the script, developing it organically as an English language show with Scandi and international talent, but we will keep the soul, spirit and storytelling close to our Scandinavian roots. We will act as producers, responsible for financing, using the Zentropa and Brain Academy networks.

What’s the format, storyline and current status?
RE: It’s an 8 episode character-driven series based on Alex Scarrow’s novel Last Light, about the world going under. The main characters - a family of four- are split when a disaster occurs and have to find each other. It’s a physical and mental journey to find one another, when the world is falling apart.
We are in development right now.

What will be the share of film and TV drama in your future line up?
RE: Zentropa’s core business remains feature film, with a 80/20 split. At TrustNordisk I hope it will be 70/30. We will look for outside TV drama to pick up on top of our in-house productions.

In terms of territories, what are the trends?
RE: The UK is still good for us because our line is us stronger and bigger. The UK has opened to foreign language film thanks to the popularity of Scandi TV drama, so we’ve had a great success selling our films to the UK, for higher prices as well. Benelux is one of our key territories, with companies like Lumiere and Wild Bunch buying across all genres. France is still very selective, but they take some chances, for instance Wild Bunch bought the entire Jussi Adler-Olsen Department Q film series. Italy and Spain are still tough markets but we work with specific companies, long time buyers of Susanne Bier, Lars von Trier films.

In the US Magnolia is a key buyer. There is also IFC, SPC that buys occasionally, then Latin America starts to grow due to Pay TV, and distributors buy for multi-territories. Then China of course is opening up. There are new players, more realistic when submitting the films to censorship, and prices start to be reasonable.

As CEO of Zentropa China, you’ve invested quite some time to develop ties with China. What have you learnt from that experience and how is your project My Best Friend Andersen?
RE: It’s been a long process. I’ve learnt that there are no short cuts. You have to go the long and steady way and build relationships, because everything is built on trust☺.

We’ve been in touch with many companies, and they are interested in working with us, Zentropa and a well-known IP such as Hans Christian Andersen. We are collaborating with the best partners ever: [Jetavana Entertainment and Sheng-Wei Media] who have the same vision for the project. Screenwriter Shu Huan is number one in China and he loves our project. He wants to do a fantasy comedy for families to take China by storm. We will shoot primarily in Denmark. That should bring loads of Chinese tourist busses!

What tip would you give producers: be realistic in terms of where your film can live?
RE: The most important is to be self-critical and see what the market wants. You have to collaborate with professionals who know their business, sales agents, local distributors. Make sure you make a hard SWOT analysis before you spend time and money. I always say: do what you do best, a smashing film, then let somebody else do the sales and marketing.