NEWS: Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market – Attendees Praise Vintage Year1 min read
Reading Time: 2 minutes
The 20th Nordic Film Market, held parallel to the Göteborg Film Festival, closed Sunday after three days of screenings and pitchings of 48 Nordic films and projects. Following, five key takeaways or trends:
- Standout Nordic Brand Quality
An excellent crop, better than 2018, with a large diversity of content, catering to arthouse/mainstream as well as local/international audiences – these were prevailing reactions from international buyers and programmers polled yesterday in Göteborg. A senior A festival programmer – who asked to remain anonymous- even said: “Today the Nordics are perhaps the strongest region in Europe creatively across TV drama, feature and documentary film.”
Although most titles had already been snatched by the big Nordic sellers – TrustNordisk, LevelK, New Europe Film Sales, The Yellow Affair, SF Studios – a dozen small offers in post, or in development at the Discovery section, still open for negotiations, made the Göteborg stop-over – fully worthwhile for the 25-plus sales reps in attendance.
“Discovery is where I acquired Ninja Thyberg’s debut “Jessica” two years ago,” noted Versatile Film Sales’ Pape Boye. The picture, about a young Swede’s odyssey in the adult film industry in L.A., was one of the most anticipated pic initially lined up for the works in progress, but producer Erik Hemmendorff of Ruben Östlund’s Plattform, and Boye preferred to hold it until Berlin.
- Female Empowerment
The strikingly high number of female directors -21 out of 48 films – was singled out by many attendees, such as Locarno Festival programmer Daniela Persico who said: “Female voices are bringing a different point of view, perhaps simpler and more human, [but] still loaded with relevant political or social messages.”
Image credit: Nordisk Film
