Balls Rolls To The Swedish Top

February 16, 2010
Josef Fares comedy Balls (Farsan) produced by Memfis Film with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond, had the best opening ever for a Swedish comedy on SF screens, with over 84,282 admissions. The film took the top of the Swedish box office last weekend, above Avatar and The Walt Disney film The Princess and the Frog.

AJ Annila Bites Canadians With Human Wolf

February 16, 2010
Finnish director AJ Annila, (pnoto) nominated last year at the Nordic Film Council Prize for his horror film Sauna, has secured Canadian money for his new genre film Human set to star I Robot actor Andrew Simpsons. Describing the new genre movie, Annila said:"I want to take this style of film and turn it on its head. What would happen if a human bit a wolf and human blood entered a wolf? With Human, I expect to do a totally different kind of werewolf film so don´t expect anything familiar to this sub-genre."

The English language project is produced by Blind Spot Pictures´ Tero Kaukomaa, in co-production with Canada´s Dean English and Karen Powell from Perfect Circle. Doug Taylor (Splice) will co-write the screenplay with Annila. 

Grasten Brings Karen Blixen To The Screen

February 16, 2010
Danish film producer Regner Grasten has secured the right to bring to the big screen the early life of Denmark's beloved author Karen Blixen. The producer of the successful franchise series Anja & Viktor had been trying for the last two decades to obtain the rights from the Rungstedlund Fund to film Blixen's life in Denmark, until her departure to Africa in 1913. But rights were blocked by Universal Pictures who produced the Oscar winning Out of Africa by Sydney Pollack. After intense negotiations, Regner Grasten finally won the rights on the ground that he would make a ‘film classic in the Danish language'.

The film project Tanne-Lykkefuglen (Tania-Bird of Happiness) - in reference to a story Blixen heard as a child - will have a DKK55m to DKK65m budget and will be produced with Nordic and European partners. The creative team will be announced in the spring and shooting is expected to start early 2011.

Double Madsen Project For Nimbus

February 16, 2010
Under the Berlinale flashlight with Submarino screening in official competition, Nimbus Films also brought to Berlin two new projects by Ole Christian Madsen , photo (Flame & Citron) to discuss with potential co-financiers.

Superclassico stars Anders W. Berhelsen as an estranged husband who follows his wife - a football agent - all the way to Argentina where she has fallen in love with a football star. The film is set to start shooting in May. The Match Factory handles world sales. Eik is a biopic based on the beloved Danish 60s Beatnik poet/singer Eik Skaloe. The project is produced by Lars Bredo Rahbek and Maja Giese and shooting is set to start in 2011.

Steaming Success For 9th DocPoint

February 9, 2010
The ninth Helsinki Documentary Film Festival that ended on Sunday, sold over 27,000 tickets. Another 2,100 documentary fans attended the first Docpoint event held simultaneously in Tallinn. One of the festival's most successful screenings was Joonas Berghäll (photo) and Mika Hotakainen's Steam of Life (Oktober Film) that filled the 700-seater Bio Rex and received a long standing ovation, the first time ever in DocPoint's history. The film supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond is an intimate portrayal of Finnish men filmed in saunas and speaking straight from the heart. Domestic distribution is set for March 26 and world sales are handled by Films Transit International. Other new Finnish documentary films that attracted attention include In the Shadow of a Doubt by Pekka Lehto and Auf Wiedersehen Finnland by Virpi Suutari.

MEDIA Day Berlin - February 15

February 9, 2010
The MEDIA Programme will hold a full day seminar on Monday February 15 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Potsdamer Platz, to update film and TV professionals on its latest support initiatives. The morning will be dedicated to Distribution - the 2009 market and 2010 MEDIA activities, calls and projects; MEDIA International and MEDIA Mundus. The afternoon's ‘Producers' session' will focus on Development support and recent trends in TV broadcasting. Three new training courses (European Post Production Connection, The Pixel Lab and S3D CAMPUS: Mastering S-3D from filming to broadcasting) will be presented as well.

Seventeen films supported y the MEDIA programme are selected at the 60^th Berlinale, including the competition titles Submarino by Thomas Vinterberg, A Somewhat Gentle Man by Hans Petter Moland, as well as the Swedish documentary film Bananas! screening at the ‘Culinary' Cinema.

Dragon Award To Danish R

February 9, 2010
The prison drama R by Danish debut directors Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm (photo) won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film and the FIPRESCI award at the 33^rd Göteborg International Film Festival. The film was produced by Nordisk Film Production with support from New Danish Screen. World sales are handled by TrustNordisk.

Two first time directors supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond were also awarded in Göteborg: Norway's Margreth Olin scooped the Audience award for her drama The Angel and Sweden's Babak Najafi the Church of Sweden Award for Sebbe, described as ‘an existentially gripping depiction of a young person's ultimate loneliness.'

The Best Swedish Documentary award was given out to Familia by Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits, the Dragon Award New Talent to Oh, Holy Night by Niklas Andersson, the Ingmar Bergman International Debut award to the Dutch film Can Go Through Skin, the Kodak Nordic Vision Award to cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk for his work on the Icelandic film The Good Heart, and the new Nordic Film Music Prize went to composer Dani Strömbäck for the film score of Finland's Letters to Father Jacob. Swedish producer Kristina Åberg (ATMO) received the Lorens Award of SEK500.000 for her work on Metropia. The 33^rd GIFF sold a record 130,000 tickets.

Fares' Balls Rolling In Sweden

February 9, 2010
Josef Fares' new comedy Balls (Farsan) is coming out on Swedish screens this Friday, released by SF. The director says the film is about ‘what it means to be a man, how you should be, how you should behave... There's a notion that a man has to be tough, hard and determined, but when that doesn't coincide with real life, it makes for comedy'. Balls was produced by Fares' usual production partner Anna Anthony (Memfis Film), in co-production with Film i Väst, SVT, Trollhättan Film and support from the Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. World sales are handled by TrustNordisk.

To see the trailer, click here.

Meet The Docs In Berlin

February 9, 2010
The European Documentary Network (EDN) and the European Film Market in Berlin are co-organising from February 12-17 the second Meet the Docs event, held for the first time at the main EFM market venue, the Martin Gropius Bau. Meet the Distributors (February 13 - 16) is an opportunity for filmmakers and producers to discuss new projects with world distributors such as Esther van Messel (First Hand Films), Catherine le Clef (Cat&Docs), Heino Deckert (Deckert Distribution), Peter Jäger (Aulook Sales) and Mette Vorm (DR Sales). The new ‘Meet the Makers' event will consist of two case studies focusing on the German documentary film Breathless (Kloos & Co) and Dutch project Drona & Me by Catherine van Campen.

For further information go to the EDN website - click here.

Max Manus Lands In Germany

February 9, 2010
Norway's local blockbuster Max Manus is coming out in Germany this Thursday, released by Capelight. The WW2 drama that sold over 1.2m tickets in Norway, was produced by Filmkameratene, Norway, in co-production with Germany's B&T Film and Denmark's Miso Film, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.  http://www.maxmanus-film.de/

Facebook Against Iron Sky

February 4, 2010
The Facebook page of Finnish sci-fi spoof movie Iron Sky has been closed down - without warning - by the US social networking administration on the basis that the film is "hateful, threatening or obscene".

The comedy is about Nazis on the Moon, coming back to invade Earth in 2018. "Iron Sky is far from a pro-Nazi movie. It's a comedy about Nazis living on the Moon", commented producer Tero Kaukomaa (Blind Spot Pictures). "I wonder when they are going to close down the page of Inglourious Basterds. Or Sound of Music, for that matter.

"I really hope we'll get the page back up and running soon, since the production is starting in the spring and we have a lot of interesting materials lined up for the fans. Luckily Facebook is not the only place on the net where we keep in contact with our fan base," said director Timo Vuorensola. The Finnish-German co-production was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

 

Glowing Stars Shine In Göteborg

February 2, 2010
Lisa Siwe's drama Glowing Stars (I taket lyser stjärnorna) was awarded the SEK50,000 Göteborg Film Award last Friday during the opening ceremony of the 33^rd Göteborg International Film Festival. The Göteborg Film Award is given away to the winner among Swedish films nominated for Best Film at the Guldbagge awards. Glowing Stars was preferred by the City of Göteborg to this year's Guldbagge winner The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Siwe's directorial drama was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Mikael Kamber New DR Media Director

February 2, 2010
The experienced Danish journalist and media executive Mikael Kamber (photo) has been appointed Media Director at the Danish broadcasting corporation DR. He takes over a position previously held by Lars Grarup, who resigned last November as part of the TV station's overall restructuring plan. Kamber's most recent position was managing director for the local newspaper JydskeVestkysten, a job he held for the last three years. As Media Director for DR, he will oversee all programmes sent on DR's TV and radio networks. He will sit on the company's Board alongside General Director Kenneth Plummer, Head of Finance and Human Resources David Hellemann, Technology & Services Director Peter Andersen, News Director Ulrik Haagerup, Communication Director Gitte Rabøl, Culture Director Morten Hesseldahl and Head of DR Danmark Inger Bach.

 

Bananas Picked Up By US Oscilloscope

February 2, 2010
The Swedish documentary film Bananas! by Fredrik Gertten has been picked up for US distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories, according to producer Margarete Jangärd (WG Film). Bananas! was released in Sweden last autumn and will open next in the UK through Dogwoof Films. The film supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond will also screen at the 60^th Berlinale as part of its Culinary Cinema programme.

Zentropa's Red Chapel Converts Sundance Jury

February 2, 2010
Mads Brügger's documentary film The Red Chapel (Det Røde Kapel) won the World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. The 90 minute documentary film is based on Brügger's TV series that was broadcast on DR2 in 2007. In 2006, the reporter and two comics (both adopted from South Korea as infants) travelled to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge the hermetically sealed North Korea. The documentary film version produced by Zentropa's Rambuk with co-financing from DR and Film i Väst had already received the Best Nordic Documentary Award at the Nordisk Panorama Festival in Reykjavik.