From Nordic noir streets to volcanic landscapes, the capitals of the North are becoming increasingly valuable characters in international film and television.
Which Nordic capital is the region’s leading open-air film studio?
A direct ranking is surprisingly difficult. Nordic cities do not collect or publish filming data in the same way, while the definition of a “permit” changes from one capital to another. A small crew filming with a handheld camera may require formal authorisation in one city but none at all in another. Look beyond permit totals, however, and a clear picture emerges. Copenhagen, Helsinki, Reykjavík, Oslo, and Stockholm are all using their distinctive urban environments, production expertise and public incentives to compete for an expanding audiovisual economy.
Oslo’s record-breaking moment
Oslo’s growing importance as a filming destination can be understood through the scale of one extraordinary production. Netflix’s Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, based on the Norwegian author’s Harry Hole universe, was filmed in and around the capital between May and December 2024. According to the Norwegian Film Commission, the production used more than 160 locations during 113 shooting days, making it the largest shoot in Oslo’s history. More than 400 Norwegian crew members worked on the series. Streets were closed for unusually ambitious sequences, including a car chase ending at a metro station and a pursuit across the city’s rooftops. The production also occupied the historic Filmparken studio complex at Jar, just outside central Oslo, for several months. Yet the importance of the series goes beyond size. Its makers did not use Oslo merely as an attractive background. They created what Nesbø called “Oslo plus 10 per cent”: a heightened version in which the city’s polished waterfront and contemporary architecture appear more glamorous, while its industrial and weathered corners become darker and grittier. Viewers encounter familiar Harry Hole locations such as Restaurant Schrøder alongside Vigeland Park, the Akerselva river, Oslo Police Headquarters, Frognerbadet and the rapidly changing Bjørvika district. This is precisely the kind of screen exposure cities increasingly seek. A recognisable location becomes part of the story and can subsequently encourage viewers to explore it in person.
Oslo also offers a logistical advantage that larger cities cannot easily reproduce. Forests, fjord, historic wooden neighbourhoods, modern towers, industrial spaces and high-technology architecture are all located within a relatively compact area. A production can move from an urban waterfront to an apparently remote natural setting without travelling hundreds of kilometres. Films such as Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World and Sentimental Value had already demonstrated how powerfully Oslo can function as a character. Detective Hole brought that relationship between story and place to an unprecedented scale.
Stockholm: filming without counting every camera
Stockholm illustrates why comparisons based solely on permits can be misleading. Small productions using handheld cameras generally do not require permission to film in the city’s public spaces, provided that they cause no obstruction. A formal police permit becomes necessary when a production installs lights or tracks, creates a working area, stops pedestrians or interferes with traffic. Consequently, a substantial amount of filming may never appear in official permit totals. The city nevertheless possesses many of the qualities sought by location managers: islands and waterfronts, grand nineteenth-century streets, the medieval passages of Gamla Stan, modern business districts, metro stations filled with public art and large areas of accessible nature. Stockholm Film Commission describes Swedish crews as relatively small, flexible and accustomed to working on location. Vehicles and equipment can often remain close to the set, even in central areas, reducing the need for distant base camps and complicated transfers. There are limitations. Sweden has traditionally lacked the national cash-rebate system offered by several Nordic competitors, although productions can seek national or regional co-production funding through a Swedish partner. This means Stockholm frequently competes through talent, efficiency and the visual range of the city rather than financial incentives alone. Its screen identity is also unusually versatile. Stockholm can appear elegant and affluent, intimate and domestic, or cold and threatening—the contrast that has helped define everything from Nordic noir to contemporary Swedish drama.
Copenhagen prepares a comeback
Copenhagen’s attraction is immediately understandable. Its canals, cycle-filled streets, design interiors, harbour baths, historic centre and experimental architecture offer an instantly recognisable form of Nordic urbanism. For years, however, the Danish capital struggled to compete financially with other regions. The Copenhagen Film Fund closed in 2020, while productions increasingly moved towards Funen and Jutland, where regional funds remained available. That imbalance is now being addressed. A new fund announced in 2025 and subsequently developed as the Eastern Denmark Film Fund combines municipal and national resources intended to attract film and television productions to Copenhagen and the surrounding region. The initiative arrives alongside Denmark’s new production-incentive framework. The change matters because the Capital Region already dominates Denmark’s creative industries, accounting for a reported 91 per cent of revenue, 82 per cent of employment and 70 per cent of companies in the sector. Copenhagen therefore has both the visual language and the professional ecosystem of a major screen city. What it has lacked is a competitive mechanism capable of keeping more productions in eastern Denmark. The new funding structure is an attempt to close that gap. Filming regulations can also be comparatively accommodating. Ordinary photography and filming in streets and open squares may be possible without special authorisation when no exclusive occupation or disruption is involved. More complex productions must coordinate road closures, parking restrictions and the use of public space with the City of Copenhagen. As in Stockholm, this means the number of formal permits cannot represent the city’s total production activity.
Helsinki: a capital supported by a national incentive
Helsinki’s screen appeal lies in its ability to move between different identities. Its neoclassical centre can evoke imperial history; its granite buildings and broad streets provide a distinctly northern gravity; its modernist estates, industrial waterfronts and contemporary architecture can represent almost any period from the Cold War to the near future. The city also has immediate access to islands, forests and the Baltic coast. Winter brings real snow and low, diffused light, while the long summer days offer exceptionally extended shooting hours. Finland reinforces these advantages with a national audiovisual production incentive. Eligible feature films, documentaries, scripted series and animation projects can receive a cash rebate of up to 25 per cent on production costs incurred in Finland. The programme’s budget for 2026 is €10 million. Commercials, music videos, reality programmes and sports recordings are excluded from the scheme, but the incentive gives Helsinki an important tool for attracting larger international projects and encouraging them to employ Finnish crews, production companies and post-production specialists. Business Finland has reported that approximately 30 per cent of productions receiving the incentive since its introduction in 2017 were foreign, with the proportion reaching 52 per cent in 2022. Helsinki’s advantage is therefore not simply that it looks cinematic. It is part of a national strategy linking locations, local expertise and international investment.
Reykjavík: the gateway rather than the whole set
Reykjavík occupies a different position. International productions rarely travel to Iceland primarily for the capital’s streets. They come for lava fields, glaciers, black beaches, waterfalls and landscapes capable of representing another planet. Reykjavík instead functions as the operational gateway: the place where crews find accommodation, equipment, production services, transport connections and post-production facilities. Its small scale is an advantage. Locations that appear remote on screen can often be reached relatively quickly from the capital, allowing a production to combine urban infrastructure with extraordinary natural scenery. Iceland currently reimburses 25 per cent of eligible film and television production costs, rising to 35 per cent for qualifying large productions. To obtain the higher rate through the large-production route, a project must spend at least ISK 350 million in Iceland, complete at least 30 working days in the country—including ten shooting days—and employ at least 50 crew members for the required period. Children’s and youth productions can also qualify for the 35 per cent rate without the same minimum-spend requirement. The scheme covers films, scripted television and documentaries but not commercials or music videos. Reykjavík may therefore record fewer conventional city-centre shoots than the other Nordic capitals, yet it supports productions with a global reach far beyond what its population would suggest.
Five capitals, five different strategies
The Nordic capitals cannot be placed in a simple league table based on filming permits. Their regulatory systems, financial structures and production models are too different.
Stockholm and Copenhagen allow some unobtrusive filming without formal permission. Finland and Iceland publish extensive information about financial incentives rather than comprehensive city shoot totals. Oslo’s most striking recent statistic concerns one exceptionally large television production. Reykjavík frequently supports projects whose most recognisable locations lie well beyond the city itself. What can be compared is the role each capital is building for itself:
Oslo offers concentrated urban variety and a growing reputation for large-scale location filming.
Stockholm combines cinematic architecture with small, efficient crews and flexible public-space rules.
Copenhagen is rebuilding its financial capacity to keep productions in the capital region.
Helsinki connects a visually versatile city with Finland’s national 25 per cent rebate.
Reykjavík provides the logistical base for productions using Iceland’s landscapes and highly competitive incentive.
The common element is that these cities no longer treat filming simply as an occasional cultural activity. Screen production generates local employment, hotel stays, transport bookings, equipment rentals and international visibility. It can also shape the way audiences imagine—and eventually visit—a destination.
The city as a destination seen before it is visited
Screen tourism does not begin when a traveller arrives. It begins when a street, restaurant, harbour or metro station becomes emotionally connected with a story. That opportunity also carries risks. A successful production can concentrate visitors around residential buildings, fragile landscapes or small businesses unprepared for sudden attention. Nordic destinations already familiar with overtourism must therefore connect film promotion with responsible visitor management. The most valuable screen exposure is not necessarily the spectacular landmark repeated in every travel campaign. It may be the neighbourhood café, suburban station, industrial waterfront or ordinary street that allows audiences to understand a city as a lived place. The Nordic capitals are learning to turn landscape, architecture and atmosphere into an economic and cultural resource. They are not simply providing backgrounds for stories created elsewhere. Increasingly, they are becoming essential parts of those stories. And at present, with more than 160 locations used for a single Netflix series, Oslo may offer the North’s clearest example of a city becoming not merely a setting, but one of the principal characters.
Suggested Online Sources
Norwegianfilm.com
Oslofilm.no
Filmstockholm.se
Nordiskfilmogtvfond.com
Copcap.com
International.kk.dk
Businessfinland.fi
Filminiceland.com
