Turning on Belgian gamer Mats Steen, the drama focused much of discussions at a Haugesund New Nordic Films roundtable on why French and Nordic producers increasingly find common ground — and where the financing still gets messy Starring Stephen Graham, Toni Collette, Bill Nighy and Charlie Plummer, “Ibelin,” from “The Imitation Game” director Morten Tyldum, loomed large over a French-Nordic producers’ roundtable held today at New Nordic Films in Haugesund. The project became a striking case study in how increasingly ambitious European films are being assembled across borders. Inspired by the life of Norwegian gamer Mats Steen, the drama is structured across Norway, France, the U.K., Belgium and the Czech Republic, tapping into Norwegian soft moneys with incentives, equity and production and post-production work spread across several territories.
Steen, who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, forged deep friendships and an unexpectedly expansive social life through “World of Warcraft” — a world his family only fully understood after his death. Brede Hovland of Norway’s Einar Film, who stepped in for producer Guri Neby on the panel, said the Norwegian shoot wrapped at the end of May after six-to-seven weeks in Oslo, with production now in Prague for the medieval and fantasy material. He declined to reveal the budget but labelled “Ibelin” as “the most expensive Norwegian film ever, for sure.” Hovland said the financing took roughly 10 months to assemble and praised the French partners for helping navigate what he characterized as an extensive puzzle of incentives and cash flow.
Vendôme Pictures’ Philippe Rousselet and Fabrice Gianfermi are among the French partners. The setup, Hovland said, remains “mostly independent” while operating at something approaching U.S. scale — an unusually high-profile illustration of the cross-border model under discussion. Moderated by European Producers Club managing director Julie-Jeanne Regnault, the session brought together producers from France, Norway, Denmark and Iceland to compare not only what makes the two regions natural partners, but also the points where their financing cultures diverge.
For June Films producer Julie Billy, the attraction was emphatic. Billy also argued that French and Nordic producers tend to communicate unusually well, describing previous collaborations as notably smooth despite differences between national systems. Nadia Turincev of Easy Riders Films offered a more complicated picture.
Drawing on her experience as a French minority co-producer on Nordic-led projects, she said French development funding for minority co-productions can be difficult to access, while territorial spending requirements become increasingly complicated as additional countries join a financing structure. The systems themselves may recognize one another relatively easily, she added, but the way producers are required to operate within them can be considerably different. That contrast between flexibility and constraint ran throughout the discussion.
Hovland noted that majority Norwegian productions are not necessarily subject to a written obligation to spend state support domestically, although Norwegian creative participation remains part of the broader evaluation. French producers described a generally tighter relationship between public support and territorial expenditure. Despite those complications, the French panelists made clear that their appetite for Nordic material is growing.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
