Producers on the Move Kasper Dissing, Gary Cranner, Nima Yousefi - on their visions

Denmark’s Kasper Dissing, Norway’s Gary Cranner and Sweden’s Nima Yousefi are among 20 European producers set to attend speed meetings and roundtables at the coveted networking European platform, unfolding fully online for the second time due to the pandemic.

"We decided to shift our programme again to the digital space this year. It worked very well last year, and it was important for us to give the participants a clear sense of planning that wouldn’t be dependent on how the pandemic situation develops. We are very grateful to our partners - the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, as well as Eurimages and the participating EFP member organisations for their flexibility,” said the European Film promotions’ managing director Sonja Heinen.

We’ve spoken exclusively to the three producers about their visions and projects.

For further information about Producers on the Move: CLICK HERE.

Kasper Dissing, selected by the Danish Film Institute
Dissing graduated in 2016 from the Super16 film school in Denmark and joined Zentropa in 2010. After several assignments as an assistant producer on Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance, Kristian Levring’s The Salvation, or associate producer on Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune among others, his first feature film as a producer was the Oscar-winning Another Round, produced in association with Sisse Graum Jørgensen.

You’ve worked alongside seasoned Zentropa producer Sisse Graum Jørgensen for many years. What is for you the Zentropa recipe of success and how is it to work with Sisse?
KD: Zentropa is a place for talent, and our main mission is to support the projects that the directors and screenwriters are enthusiastic about. This is part of the Zentropa DNA, and the company has always been striving to build trust in the talent. This means that we have a bunch of brilliant interns and a lot of them have never been working in the industry before coming to us. Here, they get a chance to work on some of the large films we produce, and evolve personally with them. It also means believing in upcoming talent and giving chances to directors as well as producers such as myself.

I have been working at Zentropa for around 10 years, and have been working with Sisse for most of that time. Initially as an intern, but working my way up the ladder. Sisse is an extremely experienced producer, and I have learnt a lot from her over the years. Taking our collaboration to a level where we work shoulder to shoulder, has been very organic. It means that she has given me a lot of space to take my place as a producer on the project. We haven’t divided the projects, but instead supported each other. I am very hands-on, and she is very big picture, but we have discussed and agreed on everything. Working with Sisse is a privilege.

What drives you personally and what do you feel are the essential skills needed for a producer to make his project stand out on the market?
KD: I consider myself a ‘generalist’. I am curious about all aspects of filmmaking, but I could not see myself dedicating myself to one area. That means that I know a little bit about everything. We are hiring experts to take care of their part of the process, and I find it important to have an interest in every aspect, and be interested in the people working in their specific fields. But maybe even more important is to be insisting on the projects. I prefer to only work on projects that are important to me, and that I insist on getting funded. If I can support the creative process in only one way, it should be to keep driving it forward and kick down every door in its way.

What projects are you currently working on?
KD: Currently I am working on The Quiet Ones, the next project from director Frederik Louis Hviid [Shorta] and scriptwriter Anders Frithiof August [The Marco Effect, A Fortunate Man]. It’s about young men, on the wrong side of the law. We are inspired to do a story about the dark side of society, all wrapped around one heist in 2008-the largest one in Danish history. The narrative will be inspired by the people involved and dramatized.The production is envisioned as a European co-production with cast from several European countries and shooting locations in both Denmark and Sweden. So far the project has received development support from the Danish Film Institute.

Additionally I am working on the next Thomas Vinterberg project, the limited tv-series Families Like Ours in which Vinterberg asks the question: If we are forced to leave our country, then what happens? The story takes place in Denmark. Ahead lies a time when the country is gradually evacuated. We must bid farewell to what we love, what we know, and to who we are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions. Only houses, schools, and empty streets are left… as the flood slowly takes over.

Gary Cranner, selected by the Norwegian Film Institute
Gary Cranner originally worked as a film editor before co-founding the production company Chezville in 2011. His debut as a producer, It's Only Make Believe (2013) by Arild Østin Ommundsen won an Amanda for Best Cinematography. His collaboration with the director continued with Now It’s Dark (2018). His latest production Sisters, The Summer We Found Our Superpowers by Silje Salomonsen and Arild Østin Ommundsen won numerous awards including Best Film at Gijón Film Festival.

What does it mean for you and your company to represent Norway at the Producer on the Move?
GC: For Chezville and myself, it is important to continue to develop our international network and relations, both to explore possible future collaborations, and to find financing and partners for our projects. The landscape for financing and selling films is changing rapidly and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic, so we need to be where the action is happening to be able to claim our place at the table.

What drives you as a producer and what do you feel are the essential skills needed for a producer to make their project stand out on the market?
GC: For me, producing is all about the collaborative process. Being the link between the filmmakers and the story on one side, and the platform and audience on the other, is a huge trigger for me in my quest to design productions and campaigns that are unique and individually tailored to each project. Finding an audience for our stories is of course imperative, but we also need to ask ourselves what we are talking about when we talk about audience. Succeeding with a story in any medium is so much more than just having the biggest numbers.

Standing out at a market is best done by doing your homework beforehand, knowing who you are talking to and their needs, by picking the best collaborators and the right project for that particular market, and creating the best possible materials and pitches. When at the market, I would say a dose of relaxed confidence and a willingness to understand the needs and motivation of who you are talking to certainly helps…and a sense of humour never hurts!

What projects are you currently working on?
GC: At the moment I am busy financing Arild Østin Ommundsen’s Underland, a sequel to his debut feature Mongoland. This multi-plot Christmas story follows an estranged group of friends (and their children) now in their late forties, who are forced to reunite and re-examine their lives and who they have become. The original film is a cult film in Norway, and the entire original cast will return, including Kristoffer Joner, Pia Tjelta, Vegar Hoel and Silje Salomonsen.
Besides Underland I have a slate of diverse projects all focused on storytelling, such as the next Eirik Svensson, Laila Abbas, Johan Kaos, Silje Salomonsen and collaborations with Mikrofilm and Fantefilm.

Nima Yousefi, selected by the Swedish Film Institute
Nima Yousefi grew up with parents who worked with film and theatre in both Iran and Sweden. He is educated in economics and philosophy at Stockholm Business School, and joined the Stockholm-based production company Hobab in 2010. Now a partner in the company, he has co-produced the award-winning Finnish film Stupid Young Heart by Selma Vilhunen and Icelandic film A White, White Day by Hlynur Pálmason. He recently completed production on Clara Sola by Swedish/Costa-Rican filmmaker Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, and the horror film Hatching by Finnish rising talent Hanna Bergholm.

What does it mean for you and your company to represent Sweden at the Producer on the Move?
NY: I have followed producers on the move participants and their work with admiration, and as I move forwards in my career, it’s an honour to be able to participate this year. So far, all my experiences as a producer have been within international co-productions, partly from financial necessity, but mostly for the love of strengthening creative collaborations across borders.

What drives you as a producer and what do you feel are the essential skills needed for a producer to make his project stand out on the market?
NY: For me movies are all about storytelling as a collaborative art form where the end result can be a visceral experience offering a nuanced view of the world. Therefore, I try to seek for specific stories and distinct voices that have a universal resonance.

What projects are you currently working on?
NY: Right now I’m raising finance for Mika Gustason’s feature film Sisters. Gustafson recently won a Guldbagge Award -Best Documentary for the film Silvana. Sisters is the story of three young siblings who live alone in a working-class housing estate in Sweden, as their mother often disappears for lengthy periods. When the social services request a meeting, Laura the eldest sister is forced to find someone to play their mom, to avoid the sisters being placed in foster care and separated.

The project has received production support (LOI) from the Swedish film institute.

I’m also developing Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s sophomore feature The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands, backed by the SFI’s Wild Card programme. It will be an international production between Europe and Latin America. Set In the 1790s, it’s the story of Isabel, a conservative European governess who travels to Colonial Latin America - her mother’s birth place - to educate the two daughters of a widower. She gradually discovers that a wilderness runs within the women in the house, regardless of class and ethnicity. Awakening from her patriarchal existence, Isabel welcomes this force, an animal that would rather tear everything down than be contained.