The Swedish phrase “Ensam är stark” — “Alone is strong” — may have moments when its true, but for the Nordic film community, the opposite is true in terms of coproductions, funding, and shared filmmaking philosophy.
By Joe Neumaier
Camaraderie and connection were the common threads in Iceland when the titles competing for the 2026 Nordic Council Film Prize were screened at Reykjavík’s Bio Paradis Oct. 13-18 courtesy of the Stockfish Film Festival. As it approaches its 13th edition, Stockfish presented nominees A Light That Never Goes Out (Finland), Kevlar Soul (Sweden), Beginnings (Denmark), Birita (the Faroe Islands), A Love That Remains (Iceland), and the eventual winner, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Norway), which was awarded on Oct. 20.
“It was an honour to be trusted with celebrating these films,” says Stockfish Managing Director Dögg Mósesdóttir. “The Nordic council film fund supports cultural projects and workshops which significantly aid the development of many Nordic filmmakers’ careers and increase their exposure at festivals. We created a mini film pop-up festival, as Stockfish takes place from the 8-18th of April 2027.”
“Stockfish is run by all the filmmakers’ associations in Iceland, so building industry connections and highlighting filmmakers is what we love to do. Stockfish 2027 will feature a very strong Nordic Focus, including a first-ever competition for First Nordic Feature as well as a W-Nordic Filmmakers Network,” added Mósesdóttir. “This network will connect filmmakers from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes with the goal of creating a more unified film collaboration.”
The state of the creative union was the focus of the Oct. 17 Bio Paradis panel Filmmaking in the Nordic Region: Where Are We Now? Discussing it was Gísli Snær Erlingsson, Director of the Icelandic Film Centre; the Faroe Islands’ Jón Hammer, producer of the documentary Birita; Sweden’s Maria Eriksson-Hecht, director of Kevlar Soul; Finland’s Lauri-Matti Parppei, director of A Light That Never Goes Out; and Iceland’s Anton Máni Svansson, producer of The Love That Remains.
The challenges were not shied away from — yet optimism was equally prominent.
“From the perspective of a film institute founder, the Nordic film industry is and always has been in perpetual crisis. It is constantly having to reinvent itself,” said Erlingsson. “However, I would also argue that at no point in time have we had so many incredible filmmakers. So creatively, we’re doing well.”
“Yet producers are finding it harder to get financing,” Erlingsson added, “so we’re seeing more coproductions — yet it’s challenging because regulations are slightly different in every country. But we’re quite committed to the process of coproductions because we can see benefits: Everyone gains, and everyone takes less risks.”
“The Swedish film industry has been in crisis for some time, because public funding is too low, and it hasn’t increased even as inflation has gone up,” said Eriksson-Hecht. “We also have a government that is not interested in helping culture — quite the opposite, in fact, and it’s [parameters] have gotten more narrow.”
“It’s always up and down, and right now we’re at a bit of a low,” noted Svansson. “Everything costs more, and funding is more difficult: that’s the key thing right now. We are becoming stronger as filmmakers, and Iceland is lucky, being able to access money from the Nordic countries. But at the same time, it’s difficult to sustain.”
“Even though I was able to make my film with the budget we had, the Finnish government announced they’re going to slash basically all of its funding from Finnish cinema doesn’t serve the ‘national agenda,’” said Parppei. “This is at a time when Finnish films have gotten better during the past years, with new voices and exciting films. I hope that we will return towards the Nordic connection culturally during our next government, starting next year.”
“For the Faroe Islands, it’s a bit tricky because we don’t have access to all the Nordic countries’ community funding, so it’s challenging, but we have been making films in spite of that,” said Hammer. “It’s growing locally, but there’s a strong tendency in Nordic countries to finance films that are more commercial, making it challenging to make more artistic films.”
Still, the panel noted how national identity that can “travel” cinematically is important.
“The more local, the more global — a good story in Borneo is a good story in Reykjavík is a good story in Shanghai,” observed Erlingsson. “We are seeing filmmakers working more and more together. I’m a great believer in the more local more global. The human condition is more or less the same everywhere in the world.”
“I want to make stories about things that interest me, in my surroundings, so it’s natural they become local,” said Eriksson-Hecht. “Yet of course it’s important for people to see a film that they can mirror themselves in.”
Parppei’s film was his feature debut, as Eriksson-Hecht’s was. Parppei noted that the film “is extremely local, to the point it uses a very specific dialect. When it came to financing, Finland was skeptical of the whole concept: ‘Why couldn’t this take place in Helsinki?’ Interestingly, that question never came up when we applied for money from other European countries; they saw the locality as more as a strength.”
Said Hammer, “In the Faroe Islands, when trying to finance films with institutional funds, regulations require a lot of it being local.” In 2025, the Faroe Islands won their first Nordic Film Prize, for the narrative feature The Last Paradise on Earth. “This year we have a documentary, and that I think it does strike a chord with audiences — but again, it’s more about breaking the whole financing model.”
“It could be a national, it could be local, but how it may travel is important in getting the funding or in deciding the future of that film,” noted Svansson.
Before that point, however, developing filmmaker talent through short films is extremely beneficial, Erlingsson said.
“I’m passionate about filmmaker development, having spent 15 years of my life in film schools around the world and having worked with many creatives,” said Erlingsson. “I am absolutely committed to that, and we are very protective of the small amount of money we have for short films. I would encourage all young filmmakers to continue making short films because even though there is [a limited] market for them, they are central to financing a big film later on. It is almost an old-school style to building up a career, building skills, etc. For public funders, it’s much easier to decide on committing funding to directors who’ve made short films.”
“I see enormous strength in the Nordic filmmaking community,” said Erlingsson. “I wouldn’t want to use the word optimistic, but I feel incredibly empowered. I see a great future in collaborating. That leads to empowerment, and community is key.”
JOE NEUMAIER, film critic for New York’s 710AM-WOR radio, is a longtime entertainment journalist, Q&A moderator, festival programmer, and media commentator. Formerly Chief Film Critic at The New York Daily News, his extensive filmmaker/artist profiles and writing on cinema and culture have appeared in The New York Times, Variety, Time, The Washington Post, and The London Observer, among others, and his broadcast appearances include MSNBC, CNN, and KTLA-Los Angeles, as well as international outlets. He has reported on, and moderated Q&As for, Reykjavik’s Stockfish Film Festival, and is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the U.S. He can be reached at neumaiermovies@gmail.com
