TV Drama Vision Set to Take Pulse of Nordic Commissioners’ Wish List
By Annika Pham
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – More than 360 international delegates are expected at Göteborg’s 13th Nordic TV Drama Vision (Jan. 30-31) described by head of industry Cia Edström as a ‘boutique event’, where top Nordic and international drama professionals gather each year to gauge the state of the Nordic market and hot content.
For the first time, to comply with the growing demand from international drama execs, a new venue – the historical theater building ‘Stora teatern’ – will host this year’s expanded Nordic TV confab.
Keynote speakers set to inspire attendees comprise seasoned U.K. TV writer Sally Wainwright (“Coronation Street”, “Happy Valley”), BAFTA award-winning comedy producer Jon Plowman (“Absolutely Fabulous”, “The Office”) and Netflix’s director of co-production & acquisition, Northern and Central Europe, Lina Brounéus.
Nordic professionals will be eager to discover Brounéus’ commissioning plans in the region beyond the three Originals already announced: “The Rain Season 2” from Denmark, “Quicksand” from Sweden, selected for the Berlinale Series, and “Ragnarok” from Norway, penned by “Ride Upon the Storm”’s Adam Price.
Nordic broadcasters and commissioners’ tastes, a wish list for the future and upcoming projects, will be unveiled at the super session ‘On the Horizon’. Having tracked industry trends for the past year, Edström says the most striking change has been the sheer volume of dramas produced in the Nordics. “It’s simply hard to keep track on who does what and where,” she notes. “To cut through the noise, people want to know what commissioners want, the business models and type of stories that will shape the sector, as well as what’s coming in the next year.”
Trends in TV drama will be further analyzed by media analyst Johanna Koljonen in her Nostradamus keynote speech.
Four Nordic series to watch out for will be pitched as works in progress: The Norwegian thriller “Twin” starring Game of Thrones’ Kristoffer Hivju, sold by TrustNordisk; the Finnish/Chilean political drama “Invisible Heroes”, just picked up by Eccho Rights; the Danish multi-plot drama “When the Dust Settles,” handled by DR Sales; and the Norwegian comedy and current NRK hit “Magnus.” The show’s producer Anders Tangen will take center stage to explain his innovative dual English and Norwegian language shooting model applied on “Norsemen”, “One Night” and “Magnus”.
Other Nordic drama projects will be unveiled live.
Among the foreign contingent, leading Italian TV producers Marco Chimenz of Cattleya and Nicola Serra of Palomar will outline Italy’s savoir-faire, while Estonian writers Eero Epner and Tarmo Jüristo will discuss the case study of “Pank” acquired for the U.S. by MHz Networks.
Crime will be under scrutiny with “Anatomy of a Crime,” a first major regional co-production between Serbia and Croatia. The ten-part series set in 1969 follows Belgrade defence lawyer Peter Manaki, and the trial of his client, the mysterious Vahida (27), accused of the murder of a pregnant woman. The project will be introduced as part of Nordic TV Drama’s collaboration with Cinelink.
As always writers will be honored through the panel “The Art of Writing for Television”, organized in collaboration with Swedish pubcaster SVT and MediaExchange, as well as the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, to be held for the third time.
This year’s Nordic drama series running for Best Nordic drama screenplay include Norway’s “State of Happiness“ and “Kieler Street,”,Denmark’s “The New Nurses”, Iceland’s “The Flatey Enigma”, Finland’s “All the Sins” and Sweden’s “The Inner Circle”. The winning series will be announced Jan.30.
The TV Drama Vision is a preamble to Göteborg’s other industry event the Nordic Film Market, unspooling Jan. 31-Feb.3.
