Nordic authorities sign off TV funding plan

The Nordic countries’ culture ministers and the region’s film institutes and broadcasters have jointly agreed the continuation of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The agreement clears the way for the fund to continue operating through to 2019. The deal, for the 2015-2019 period, means the fund will run on the same annual DKR78 million (US$14.6 million) budget across that period

The new funding deal comes as scripted TV programming from the region enjoys international success. The fund provides backing for about 50 projects a year across the drama, documentary and feature film sectors.

The fund’s annual budget comes from The Nordic council of ministers, eleven of the region’s broadcasters and the five national film institutes.

“Nordic film and television series play an increasingly important role in our understanding of each other both within the Nordic countries and especially abroad where they help branding the Nordic culture and countries. So we are very happy to continue to support this collaboration with the Nordic film and television industry,” said Illugi Gunnarsson, Minister of Culture in Iceland, which holds the chairmanship of Nordic Council of Ministers in 2014.

“We see the Council of Ministers’ continued participation as a sign of recognition to the work all the industry partners have done during the past years in creating success that has already been labeled The Golden Age for Nordic films and television”, says Petri Kemppinen, CEO of Nordisk Film & TV Fond.