Freetime Machos On Finnish Screens

March 9, 2010
The Finnish documentary film Freetime Machos by Mika Ronkainen is opening domestically this Friday released by Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus on four Finnish screens. The film about the Oulu rugby team - described as ‘the most northern and third worst rugby club in the world - had its world premiere at the last IDFA Documentary film festival in Amsterdam. The film produced by Klaffi Productions, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond is sold internationally by DR Sales.

Tampere Blows 40 Candles

March 3, 2010
Tampere Film Festival, the most important short and documentary film event in Finland, will celebrate its 40th anniversary from March 10-14. Over 30,000 visitors are expected, including nearly 800 professionals. Nine Finnish documentaries will compete in the over 30 minute film programme including Mika Ronkainen's Freetime Machos, supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

For further information please go to: http://www.tamperefilmfestival.fi/site/

Himmelblå Back On NRK

March 3, 2010
The million Norwegian viewers who were glued to their TV screens for the first episodes of Himmelblå (Blue Sky Blue) will finally be able to watch the continuation of the NRK series on Sunday at 20:10 on NRK1. The third and final season of Himmelblå consists of eight episodes, directed by Petter Næss, (photo), Trond Fausa Aurvåg, Audny C. Øiamo-Holsen, and Eva Dahr.

"The last season includes everything that viewers can expect from an NRK family series: humor, thrills, conflicts, absurd situations, entertainment, sorrows, longing, warmth, strong emotions and many wonderful people in life-size," said Hans Rossiné, NRK head of drama.

Last year, an average 1.2 million viewers watched the lives of the islanders of Ylvingen in Northern Norway. With a record 1.3 million, the last episode of the second season was one of the most successful Norwegian TV series ever. Himmelblå also scored with Icelandic viewers over the Christmas period, and the eighth episode was followed by one out of three Icelanders, a record held by other Nordic TV series such as Forbrydelsen or Wallander. Espen Huseby from Nordic World who handles world distribution said rights for season 1 and 2 were sold to RTV Slovenia.

 

Nordic Films Animate Cartoon Movie

March 3, 2010
Nordic countries are well represented this week at the 12^th Cartoon Movie event in Lyon, France (March 3-5) where ten new animation projects are introduced to over 590 professionals, of which 160 buyers. Finland in particular has a strong presence with four projects Moomins and the Comet (Filmkompaniet Alpha), and The Magic Crystal (Epidem Zot) in production, and The Sampo (NDFC Helsinki) and Split (Camera Cagliostro) in development. Denmark is bringing the films in production Olsen Gang gets Polished (A Film/Nordisk Film) and The Great Bear (Copenhagen Bombay) and the project Carlo's Casino directed by the 2009 Nordic Talent winner Jan Rahbek (produced by Thomas Borch Nielsen). Maipo from Norway is presenting its new project Alfie Atkins and Sweden the finished film Metropia (photo) for which Tarik Saleh is nominated at Cartoon Movie as Best European Director of the Year. The winners of this year's Cartoon Movie Tributes will be announced tonight.

Steen Bille New DFI Film Commissioner

March 3, 2010
Steen Bille (photo) has been hired by the Danish Film Institute as the new Feature Film Commissioner, a position he will occupy from April 1, 2010. Bille has an MA in philosophy from Århus University and has worked since 1986 for Danmarks Radio, most recently as host for the P1 programme ‘Kulturkontoret'. He has co-written with Niels Arden Oplev the scripts for We Shall Overcome (Drømmen) and Worlds Apart (To verdener). Claus Ladegaard, DFI head of Production and Development said: "We are looking forward to working with Steen Bille. Through his work as scriptwriter and dramatist, he has a double experience with the substantial creative process of making a film. On top of that, as a journalist for DR, he has a wide insight of cultural life."

Photo: Agnete Schlichtkrull for DR

 

Kári's Heart Opens In Iceland

March 3, 2010
Dagúr Kári's The Good Heart opens in Iceland this Friday through Sena. Kári's English language film was recently awarded the Kodak Nordic Vision Award for Rasmus Videbæk's cinematography, at the Göteborg International Film Festival. The film was produced by ZikZak Filmworks with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The Good Heart will then open in France on March 17, released by Le Pacte.

NonStop Traps Golden Bear

March 3, 2010
The pan-Nordic distribution company NonStop Entertainment has acquired from The Match Factory the Golden Bear winning film Honey (Bal) by Semih Kaplanoglu. NonStop Entertainment has bought the Turkish film for the five Nordic territories.

Healthy Kick Off For Cinema-going In Norway

February 23, 2010
Cinema-going in Norway had a good start with the second best January in ten years, according to the Norwegian cinema organisation Film & Kino. In the absence of a roller-coaster film like Max Manus that sold 580,000 admissions in January 2009, this year's first month was still very positive (over 1.1 million admissions) thanks to several good performers such as the top three movies Avatar (almost 700,000 admissions), Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and Sherlock Holmes. Three new Norwegian films were also among the Top Ten most successful films: the comedy Tomme tønner (4), and the family films Pelle Politibil går i vannet (6) and Olsenbanden jr. Mestertyvens skatt (8).

SFI Takes Part In Hamer's Christmas Project

February 23, 2010
In its latest round of production support, the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) has awarded almost SEK1.2m in production support to Home for Christmas by Norway's top filmmaker Bent Hamer, (photo).
 
The episodic film about different people struggling to find their way home on a Christmas Eve is produced by Bulbul Film in co-production with Sweden's Filmimperiet (Jörgen Bergmark) and Germany's Pandora Film, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Alongside Norwegian actors Trond Fausa Aurvå and Fridtjov Såheim are Sweden's Tomas Norström and Nina Zanjani. The film will be ready in the autumn 2010.

Berlin's Jury Grand Prix winner If I Want to Whistle I Whistle by Romania's Florin Serban co-produced by Sweden's The Chimney Pot with co-financing from Film i Väst was granted SEK300,000 from the SFI. Plattform Production's documentary film The Extraordinary Life of José Gonzalez was awarded SEK400,000 and Mantaray Film & TV Production's The Comeback by Åsa Ekman was awarded SEK675,000.

Finnish Films Sell In Berlin

February 23, 2010
Klaus Härö's Letters to Father Jacob was sold by Film Sharks to US distributor Olive Films during the last European Film Market in Berlin. Zaida Bergroth's feature debut Last Cowboy Standing (Skavabölen pojat) was sold to Hungary and Estonia by M-Appeal. Both films were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Nordic Docs Get NFI Support

February 23, 2010
The Norwegian Film Institute has awarded NOK6.6m in production support to ten new documentary films. Four of them are co-produced with Nordic partners.

SF Norge received NOK550,000 for Stemmen (‘The voice'), about journalists' freedom of expression and the risk they take when reporting from a country in crisis. The NOK 2.8m project is co-produced with Denmark's Grunnet Film.

Ishavet kjempe (‘The fighter of the ice sea') directed by Adam Schmedes focuses on the black whales in the Arctic Sea. Videomaker received NOK 500,000 towards its NOK10m budget. Loke Film in Denmark is co-producing.

A similar grant was awarded to Freemen, a Danish documentary project about small time gangsters in the Philippines promoted to para-military death squad leaders. The NOK10m project is directed by Christine Cynn and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Globalisation Tapes). Final Cut is producing with Norway's Piraya Film.

Survivors is the new project by Sweden's Magnus Gertten - photo - (Long Distance Love) produced by Auto Images, in co-production with Norway's Kino Pravda. Gertten explores the fate of some 30,000 concentration camps survivors during WW2 who arrived in Sweden in the spring 1945. The NOK4.3m project was awarded NOK350,000 from the NFI.

 

Entertainment Profits Up By 6% For Bonnier

February 23, 2010
Thanks to the three Millennium films and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, SF Bio registered its highest profits ever in 2009, boosting its mother company Bonnier's own entertainment division whose EBITA reached SEK255m in 2009, up 6% from 2008. Next to entertainment, Bonnier's Books division also performed well and profits were up by 13%. However the Swedish media giant's overall end of year results were in the red, badly hit by losses in advertising revenues of SEK2 billion, and an increase of write-offs for goodwill by SEK249 million to a total of SEK886 million, due to the acquisition in December 2008 of C More Entertainment and unfavourable currency exchange rates. The group's profit after net financial items fell by SEK1.7 billion, with a year-end result of SEK-228 million.

Skolimowski, Vincent Gallo In Norway

February 23, 2010
Jerzy Skolimowski (photo) and US actor Vincent Gallo are in Norway for the shooting of the English language thriller The Essence of Killing. Lill Høgtun from Cylinder Film in Norway is minority co-producer on this major European project between Poland (Skopia Film), France (Iliade Film), and Ireland (Element Pictures), backed by the Norwegian Film Institute.

Truls Kontny from the Norwegian Film Commission who has worked very hard to ‘sell' Norway to the Polish director said this project means a lot for the Norwegian film industry, both on a short and long term perspective as it will open the doors to other famous directors willing to use Norway as film location.

Høgtun describes the project is a cross between Rambo and Andrej Tarkovski's poetic aestheticism. Gallo plays a political prisoner on the run who has to struggle against extreme conditions to survive. Norwegian actors Nicolai Cleve Broch and Stig Frode Henriksen are attached to the project set to be ready in May.

Non Stop Renews Deal With Sandrew Metronome

February 16, 2010
The Scandinavian distribution group NonStop Entertainment has closed a new deal with Sandrew Metronome for video distribution on DVD and Blueray in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
"We are glad to have a solid partner like Sandrew Metronome for our DVD distribution and look forward to a continued collaboration with them," said NonStop Entertainment CEO Ignas Scheynius. Titles previously released on DVD by Sandrew Metronome for NonStop include Gomorra, The Wrestler and This is England. Upcoming titles include Fish Tank, The Cove and In the Loop.

Noomi Rapace Wins DN Kulturpris 2010

February 16, 2010
The Swedish star of the Millennium series was just awarded the prestigious Culture Prize from the Swedish daily newspaper DagensNyheter. "Noomi Rapace has given an extraordinary performance as Lisbet Salander in the Millennium trilogy, said DN head of Culture Maria Schottenius. The award consists of SEK50,000 and a statue from sculptor Eva Lange. Rapace was recently awarded Best Actress at the Swedish Guldbagge awards.