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The Göteborg Film Festival’s annual TV industry event, TV Drama Vision, has unveiled its program, which focuses on sustainability and healthy working conditions at a time of hyper-competition in the drama space.
TV Drama Vision is set to unspool both in-person and online over Feb. 2-3.
As opening keynote, Johanna Koljonen, author of the anticipated Nostradamus Report, will kickstart the event’s conference strand, which is also due to new paths for creative producers, public funding at a crossroads, green filmmaking, diversity, changing business models and storytelling.
“The program, designed as always in close collaboration with the industry, will reveal how the streaming disruption, accelerated by the pandemic, is affecting us all. It’s important for all partners to find common grounds and reflect on long-term plans to create a sustainable industry,” says Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström, who will be hosting the event with moderators Johanna Nunnu Karppinen, a long time Finnish industry executive, and Marike Muselaers, co-head of Benelux’s Lumière Group.
Heavyweight keynote speakers and panellists take in Banijay’s Lars Blomgren, Film i Väst’s Tomas Eskilsson, REinvent’s Rikke Ennis, NENT Group’s Filippa Wallenstam, Sagafilm’s Kjartan Thór Thórdarson, NRK’s Ivar Køhn, Nordic Drama Queen’s Josefine Tenglad, and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond’s Liselott Forsman. All are expected to take centre stage at Göteborg’s grandiose Stora Teatern opera house with sessions to be live streamed and available to registered online delegates.
Over 450 online participants have already signed up for the event, of which over 280 will attend TV Drama Vision in person, including buyers from Arte France, the BBC, Germany’s ZDF, Red Arrow Studios, Benelux’s Lumière Group and Russia’s Start.
Netflix, which set up a Stockholm-based Nordic hub last year, is sending to Göteborg a strong team of 8 or more reps, steered by Jenny Stjernströmer Björk, head of Nordic Original Series.
The Swedish TV executive is among 12 high-ranking Nordic commissioners due to unveil their upcoming slate and plans for the future.
Other drama honchos lined up for the Meet Nordic Broadcasters and Streamers sessions include TV2 Denmark’s Katrine Vogelsang, C More/TV4’s Piodor Gustafsson and Nathalie Drago, DR’s Henriette Marienlund, NRK’s Ivar Køhn, NENT Group’s Camilla Rydbacken, SVT’s Anna Croneman, and Malin Nevander, Yle’s Jarmo Lampela, Elisa Viihde’s Ani Korpela, and C More/MTV3’s Jani Hartikainen.
Lampela, Korpela and Hartikainen will also be be interviewed by Laura Kuulasmaa, executive director of Audiovisual Producers Finland, as part of this year’s Focus on Finland.
“I’m impressed by how Finnish drama has developed over the last couple of years and 2022 looks like a very good year for the Finns,” noted Edström.
Among standout Finnish dramas to be showcased are Yle’s crime series “Transport,” vying for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for best Nordic TV screenplay, whose winner will be unveiled on Feb. 2.
Other contending Nordic titles are TV2 Denmark’s maternity world drama “The Shift,” Discovery Sweden’s satire “Suburbia,” NRK’s comedic drama “Countrymen” and RÚV’s Icelandic fishing industry drama “Blackport.”
Meanwhile the premium dramas “Blackwater” and “Trom,” set in isolated and breath-taking settings – respectively Sweden’s Norbotten and the Faroe Islands – look set to prove for another year that Nordic Noir is alive and kicking. The two works in progress are based on literary works. “I’m looking forward to watching the first long-running TV series from the Faroe Islands, and I loved Kerstin Ekman’s book ‘Blackwater,’” said Edström.
Powered by “The Killing’s” producer Piv Bernth for ITV Studios’ Apple Tree Productions, “Blackwater” tells the story of three people’s lives, all shaped by a random killing of tourists. Mikael Marcimain (“Horizon Line,” “The Hunt for a Killer”) serves as director. The crime show will premiere on SVT in 2023, with ITV Studios handling sales.
Produced and sold by REinvent Studios, “Trom” is slated for a Feb. 13 launch on Viaplay in the Nordics. Ulrich Thomsen stars as journalist Hannis Martinsson investigating the killing of his estranged daughter in the Faroe Islands.
Rounding out the TV sneak-peeks are 10 Nordic, European and Latin American dramas in development:
-“As Long as We Live” (Iceland), produced by Glassriver for Channel 2 Iceland;
-“Feud” (Finland), by Marion Saares;
-“Home Where the Heart Is” (Iceland), produced by Polorama for Síminn;
-“Inside Your Border” (Sweden), helmed by Simon Elvås;
-“Jinx” (Croatia), produced by Antitalent, to be presented in collaboration with Sarajevo’s Cinelink;
-“Gold Train” (Germany), produced by 27 Films Production, presented in collaboration with Series Mania;
-“The Great Unknown” (Finland) produced by Overva Pictures;
-“The Stolen kids” (Chile), produced by Mega Media and Maria Wood Producciones for Mega, presented with Conecta Fiction;
-“This is Not Sweden” (Spain), produced by Nanouk Films and Funicular Films for TVE;
-“Vanished” (Germany), produced by Red Pony Pictures for ZDF Germany.
Other highlights include a Focus on Russia’s fast-expanding Start streaming service, and a masterclass with Italy’s Oscar-nominated writer-director-producer Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”), recipient of this year’s Göteborg Film Festival Honorary Dragon Award.
