Nordic Factory is produced by Pebble Nordic Factory DK and DoDream (now Nordic Factory Sweden) and is a one-off international film project for young Danish, Finnish and international directors. Nordic Factory consists of 4 short films, which had their World Premiere at the 67th Cannes Film Festival at a special screening on the opening day of the Directors’ Fortnight programme.
The project consists of a development workshop, a residency including the film production, and a presentation and networking event in Cannes to present the films and the directors’ first features (in development).
Nordic Factory started its journey in September 2013 when my Swedish producer partner Helene Granqvist and I were invited to finance and produce the 2nd edition of the Directors’ Fortnight new Factory-initiative – founded in 2013 by Dominique Welinski, who launched the concept with the Taipei Factory and continues it with the Chile Factory in 2015.
Thanks to the fast commitment of support from New Danish Screen/DFI and The Finnish Film Foundation, we were able to kick off the co-production and the artistic collaborations in December 2013 with the 8 selected directors and a local production-team on board, helmed by First Lady Film/Nynne Selin Eidnes; shortly after securing further support from Copenhagen Film Fund and our 4 key co-producers: Red Rental ApS, Larsen VFX , FilmGear Aps and Mainstream ApS.
In January 2014 Nordic Factory brought the director teams together, offline, for the first time to share an intensive 4-day script development workshop in Helsinki (joined by our funders and Quinzaine Managing Director Christophe Leparc); in February-March we continued with a 4-week residency in Copenhagen (kicked off with a visit by Quinzaine Artistic Director Edouard Waintrop) and the 4 x 15 minute short films were shot, edited and finalized in collaboration with our co-producers, culminating with everyone coming together and celebrating the intense efforts at the World Premiere in Cannes on May 15th 2014.
Nordic Factory – being a one-off production – is still continuing its journey through 2015-2016, as we are currently following the films being screened at international festivals and events. Two of the films (Listen & The Girl and the Dogs) were screened at the Laemmle Royal Movie Theatre in Los Angeles in December 2014; one film (Void) has won an award that gives immediate Oscar-eligibility (at Zinebi – Bilbao Int. Festival) and one film (Listen) has been nominated by a jury at Tampere FF in Finland to compete for the European Film Award in December 2015.
The films and directors are:
Void
Written/directed by Milad Alami (DK) & Aygul Bakanova (KG).
Starring Lars Mikkelsen and Dar Salim.
Listen
Written/directed by Hamy Ramezan (FIN) & Rungano Nyoni (ZMB).
Starring Amira Helene Larsen, Yusuf el Ali, Zeinab Rahal, Nanna Bøttcher and Alexandre Willaume.
Sundays
Written/directed by Kræsten Kusk (DK) & Natalia Garagiola (AR).
Starring Signe Egholm Olsen and Stig Hoffmeyer.
The Girl and the Dogs
Written/directed by Selma Vilhunen (FIN) & Guillaume Mainguet (F).
Starring Fillippa Coster-Waldau, Caroline Stein Frandsen and Lea Monrad Post.
Festivals – a selection:
Listen:
TIFF Toronto International Film Festival/Canada 4.9-14.9.2014
HIFF Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy/Finland 18-29.9.2014
| MEFA Middle Eastern Film and Arts Festival, Helsinki/Finland 9-12.10.2014 |
Nordische Filmtage Lübeck/Germany 29.10-2.11.2014
Stockholm International Film Festival/Sweden 5-6.11/2014
Helsinki Short Film Festival/Finland 11-15.11.2014 (winning a Special Mention and receiving the Kettu-Award, a Best Short Film Award, given at the Finnish Jussi-gala (Finnish Film Awards) on 1.2.2015)
London Film Festival/UK 26.11-7.12.2014
Flickerfest 24th International Short Film Festival & Short Film Bureau/Australia 9-18.1.2015 + Touring around the country
El Corto Del Ano, Promofest, Madrid/Spain 1.1.2015 (winning festival distribution as Short Film of the Year Award)
Clermont-Ferrand Marché Du Film Court/France, Market-screening 31.1-6.2.2015
Air d’Islande Paris/France 7.2.2015
Tampere Film Festival/Finland 4-8.3.2015 (winning Tampere Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards 2015 (EFA) & Prize of the Youth Jury: Golden Moro)
Hong Kong International Film Festival 23.3-6.4.2015
Amnesty screening, French Riviera/France 7-29.3.2015
Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen/NL 8-12.4.2015
Aspen Shortsfest/USA 7-12.4.2015
Mooov Film Festival/Belgium 23.4-3.5.2015
Tribeca Film Festival/USA 15-26.4.2015
Void:
Odense International Film Festival/Denmark 25.8-31.8.2014
Flanders Int. Film Festival Ghent/Belgium 14.10-25.10.2014
Nordische Filmtage Lübeck/Germany 29.10-2.11.2014
Zinebi – Bilbao Int. Festival of Documentary and Short Film/Spain 14.11-21.11.2014; (Void winning the Best Short Fiction Film Award, granting access to Oscar-eligibility)
Clermont-Ferrand Marché Du Film Court/France, Market-screening 31.1-6.2.2015
Tampere Film Festival/Finland 4-8.3.2015
The Girl and the Dogs:
South Cinema Film Festival/Israel 2014
New York Film Festival (NYFF Lincoln Center’s Film Society) 2014
Berlin Short Film Festival 2014
Helsinki Short Film Festival 2014
Glasgow International Film Festival 2014
Institute of Contemporary Arts of London 2014
Greenland Eyes Festival Helsinki/Finland 2014
Zimbabwe International Film Festival 2014
Malmö International Youth Film Festival + tour – BUFF/Sweden 2015
Further festival screenings:
World premiere: Cannes – Quinzaine des Réalisateurs/France; Odense IFF/Denmark (Sundays); Kulturmødet Mors/Denmark (all 4 films); Le Festival International du Film de La Rochelle/France (all 4 films); Noordelijk/Northern FF in Leeuwarden/The Netherlands (all 4 films); London Nordic Film Festival/UK (all 4 films).
You can read more on our website and in the project book: