06/03/2015 - The Nordisk Film & TV Fond is supporting new feature-film projects for development and workshop access

The Oslo-based Nordisk Film & TV Fond (NFTVF) has selected seven new feature-film projects from the Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – for its Nordic Genre Boost initiative, chipping in €24,000 of development funding for each one, as well as access to two residential workshops.

“The response to the Nordic Genre Boost initiative has been amazing – it obviously fulfils a need in the market,” said Petri Kemppinen, CEO of the NFTVF. “The selected genre titles offer an interesting combination of new talents with established producers and experienced directors.”

At the first workshop in Helsinki, during the Night Visions International Film Festival (15-19 April), the projects will receive coaching on script development, financing, sales and festival strategies from Irish producer Brendan McCarthy, Italian script consultant Gino Ventriglia, Finnish script consultant Jan Forsström, and French sales and festival consultant Annick Mahnert. At the second workshop in Haugesund, during New Nordic Films’ Co-Production and Finance Market (19-20 August 2015), they will be pitched to buyers, distributors and funders.

Out of 113 applications, the NFTVF decided to promote:

DENMARK
- Border; dir: Ali Abbasi; prod: Nina Bisgaard, for Meta Film. A supernatural Nordic horror, based on a novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In)
- Teenland; dir: Marie Grathø Sørensen; prods: Amalie Lyngbo Hjort and Peter Hyldahl, for Beofilm. A sci-fi pop noir about girls with talents that could pose a threat, who are locked away in an institution 

FINLAND
- Bloodsuckers; dir: Elin Grönblom; prod: Leila Lyytikäinen, for Fisher King. A horror comedy about a new breed of mosquitoes that is spreading across Finnish Lapland
- Bodom; dir: Taneli Mustonen; prod: Aleksi Hyvärinen, for Don Films. A horror-slasher about a group of teenagers who decide to reconstruct an unsolved murder

ICELAND
- The Highlands; dir: Ragnar Bragason; prods: Skúli Malmquist and Thor Sigurjonsson, for Zik Zak Filmworks. A psychological horror-thriller, a modern saga set in the volcanic hinterlands, based on Icelandic author Steinar Bragi’s novel

NORWAY
- Bright Skies; dir: André Øvredal; prod: John Einar Hagen, for Eldorado. A sci-fi fantasy about UFO events inspiring secrecy in a tiny Norwegian valley
- Thale 2; dir: Aleksander Nordaas; prod: Bendik Heggen Strønstad, for Yesbox. The sequel to Nordaas’ 2012 fantasy-horror, in which spellbinders and lurking creatures from Norwegian folklore come alive.