“During last year I have had numerous discussions on defining success of a film or a TV drama. It is important to understand the broad picture, as our area of operation is transnational, covering all the five Nordic countries and beyond.

To take only one example among the many positive ones, it has been very satisfying to follow the success of Ruben Östlund´s The Square, from prestigious Palme d´Or in Cannes to six European Film Awards, whilst hearing of its excellent box-office results in global cinemas, and shouts of new and younger audiences finding this art-house film interesting.

It was equally rewarding to get proof from our commissioned study on TV Drama Series  (Distribution And Viewing Of Television Series In The Nordic Countries - Report) that they actually do travel well cross borders and get good audiences. How has all this been achieved? Clearly, the report claims, positioning, programming and marketing have a great impact on the best results.

We see boosting the pan-Nordic perspective as a key to better outreach. Documentaries are constantly proving their impact, at the same time, as their budgets are getting more ambitious. We – after the substantial increase two years ago – decided again to allocate more funds to documentaries, and the total pool is this year 5,3% more than in 2017, at NOK 10 million. For fiction, the allocation is close to NOK 76 million and for distribution funding NOK 9 million.

And then we welcome our new special initiative, Nordic Distribution Boost! Workshop, which is the result of discussions with our partners and the industry. In short, we have identified the challenges of mid-size art-house films, regionally and globally, and aim to provide tools to overcome those obstacles. Details of this intensive workshop will be announced shortly, but we are targeting the producers and distributors of films from second or third time feature film directors, to help them develop and strengthen their regional and global outreach and marketing strategies.

Last year was the first full one with our new website and the number of our readers doubled. Keep on subscribing to our Newsletter! And this New Year comes also with new looks. Fresh, open-minded, modern, building bridges – that is how I see us, and that is what our new logo and corporate image reflects.

My best wishes for a great film and TV year 2018!

Petri Kemppinen

CEO
Nordisk Film & TV Fond