Nordic genre movies are not only met with greater success these days, but also gaining more formal support, as NFTF’s new funding scheme is evidence of.
The last few years, the organization Nordic Genre Invasion (backed by various producers and production companies) has promoted horror and fantasy films in industry environments. And now, for the first time public funding specifically targeted at genre films from the Nordic region becomes more available, as Oslo-based financing body Nordisk Film & TV Fund has launched an initiative to back films and TV series in genres such as horror, sci-fi and fantasy for the local and the international market.
The two-year scheme, dubbed the Nordic Genre Boost, will provide development grants of NOK 200.000 (around USD 27.000) each for five to seven projects a year, as well as access to two intensive residential workshops. The first workshop in Helsinki will be organised with Night Visions International Film Festival, while the second will be followed by a presentation of the projects at the Nordic Coproduction & Finance Market in August 2015.
The initiative has been launched following the success of films such as Let the Right One In, Troll Hunter and Iron Sky, which all originated in Nordic territories. The genre projects that are eligible for funding are defined as falling into specific genre conventions, including but not limited to horror, sci-fi, fantasy and western. Projects must be suitable for theatrical or television distribution and may contain elements suitable for other platforms, such as games or webisodes.
Petri Kemppinen, CEO at Nordisk Film & TV Fund, said: -A growing number of filmmakers are developing genre films and TV series that cross borders within the Nordic region and many titles have had successful international launches. Yet financing genre projects, particularly in the development stage, remains difficult.
The Nordic Genre Boost programme will take its funds from the budgets of Nordisk Film & TV Fund (established 1990), which has at its disposal 52 million euros (USD 72 million) over the next five years after having made a new agreement with its members, which are broadcasters, governments and the national film institutes of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Hopefully, these funds will not only help develop more genre movies in the region, but also signal that they are worthy investment objects and that horror, sci-fi and fantasy films have “grown up” and become part of the established film scene.
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