Vienna-based Autlook Film Sales has started negotiations with major territories including China and Japan for the Danish/Norwegian/Swedish documentary series for kids ‘Sports Kids’. Three of the six high end films are vying for the inaugural €2,500 Children’s Documentary Award at IDFA.
The ‘Sports Kids’ series is the result of a joint collaboration between Denmark’s Final Cut for Real, Norway’s Sant & Usant and Sweden’s Story AB that each have made two films about talented kids dedicated to their sport at a serious level. After Chikara-the Sumo Wrestler and The Fencing Champion that screened at IDFA 2013 and IDFA 2014 respectively, three new titles are premiering this year at the festival’s Kids & Docs section. Varicella by Victor Kossakovsky featuring two sisters studying ballet in Saint Petersburg, Dancing for You by Erlend E.Mo, about the first female champion of the Norwegian folk dance Halling, as well as Ruth by Hanna Heilborn, about a Swedish cheerleader. Another film, Chapter 11 by Ania Winiarska focusing on a South African junior champion in BMX is offered at IDFA’s Docs for Sales.
Autlook Film Sales’ CEO Salma Abdalla who came on board the series at IDFA 2014, has helped the producers secure a pre-sale with French/German channel ARTE and is in negotiations with several territories such as China, Japan, Thailand, Estonia and Poland. “There is a lot of interest on the series, but we are waiting for the films’ screenings at IDFA to finalise the deals.”
For Abdalla, the ‘Sports Kids’ doc series is unique as the collaboration between the three Scandinavian production companies has allowed for a higher budget and quality level, and the format has given distributors and broadcasters the flexibility to buy each film separately or as a bundle. She feels the market for documentaries targeting the 8-12 year olds is rapidly expanding. “We can market these films as quality family movies and distributors are hungry for good storytelling for kids. I wish more producers would get into that segment of the market,” said Abdalla.
In Sweden Folkets Bio released four films in the series on October 16 and after their IDFA platform Varicella, and Dancing for You will open on November 27. In Denmark the series premiered on DR Ultra on Wednesday with the airing of The Fencing Champion. In Norway Little Sister will handle the distribution. The doc series will be launched at an event premiere in February on a Snø lerret – big outdoor screen - during the 2016 Youth Olympics Games in Lillehammer for thousands of children and young people from all over the world. Then some of the films will have a theatrical distribution before the airing on NRK.
The Kids Sports series was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
Watch the trailer CLICK HERE.