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MARKET Scandinavia

Trust and Nordisk create sales alliance

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Two of Scandinavia’s biggest sales companies, Nordisk Film International Sales (NFIS) and Trust Film Sales (Zentropa’s sales division), announced on Tuesday that they will join operations and create a single sales organisation to be launched at the Berlinale’s forthcoming European Film Market (EFM).

“I have great expectations for this new sales cooperation,” said Kenneth Wiberg, head of NFIS. “Trust is among the best in international sales of Nordic arthouse movies, and Nordisk Film is recognized worldwide for our tradition for family movies. At the same time, we are the biggest in film sales for TV in Scandinavia.”

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Trust CEO Rikke Ennis explains how the new collaboration will work: “Basically, Nordisk Film has a slate divided among different labels for family, arthouse and genre films. Their arthouse films will be branded under the Trust label. In Berlin, we’ll continue to have two identities and different stands, but we will join our tables and work very closely together. After the festival, we will use one common name for our new sales operation, and sub-labels, and those sub-labels will include Trust Film.”

The Trust label will represent Zentropa’s titles and Nordisk’s quality arthouse films, as well as a few selective pick-ups with real potential on the theatrical market.

The sales team for both companies will remain unchanged, and Trust’s freshly appointed Susan Wendt (ex-Nordisk, now Trust’s head of sales) and Anneli Häkkinen will work alongside Ennis and Thomas Mai (head of new media). In Berlin, they will support NFIS, whose head of sales, Tine Klint, is currently on maternity leave.

The new Nordic sales alliance was welcomed positively by producers such as Finland’s Markus Selin (Solar Films) and Ilkka Matila (MRP Matila Röhr Productions), whose companies are partly owned by Nordisk. “I’m very happy that the two big Nordic sales companies are going to be working together,” said Selin. Matila added: “It is a very wise move and it will help all Scandinavian producers who now have a strong sales arm for Scandinavian films.”

At the upcoming Berlinale, Trust and Nordisk will be selling several Scandinavian titles in official selection. IN the Generation 14Plus section, Niels Arden Oplev has a chance to win another Crystal Bear with his new drama Worlds Apart, two years after his award for We Shall Overcome [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
.

For younger children, the Danish animated film A Tale of Two Mozzies by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist-Møller will be presented in the Generation KPlus programme, alongside Norway’s The Ten Lives of Titanic the Cat [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Grethe Bøe. The Forum section will feature Josef Fares’ drama Leo [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Sweden).

Nordisk titles premiering at the market include Solar Films’ English-language horror flick Dark Floors: The Lordi Motion Picture and Danish animated film Amazon Jack 3: Jungo goes Bananas by Flemming Quist Møller and Jørgen Lerdam.

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