PARIS — The Five Nordics, the collaborative platform uniting the film institutes of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, launched its first-ever joint press event at the Cannes Film Festival this week, unveiling a slate of upcoming feature films while emphasizing the growing strategic importance of Nordic collaboration in an increasingly competitive global industry.

Held at the Nordic House in Cannes, the event, titled Next from the Nordics, gathered filmmakers, producers, journalists, and international industry representatives for a presentation of new projects spanning the Nordic region. The initiative aims to strengthen the international visibility of Nordic cinema while fostering closer ties between Nordic filmmakers and the global press and marketplace.

The showcase featured a diverse lineup of projects currently in development or production, many of them structured as Nordic and wider European co-productions. Organizers stressed that these collaborative models remain central to the region’s filmmaking ecosystem, allowing ambitious projects to pool creative resources, financing, and production expertise across borders.

Among the films presented were “Mr Nawashi” from Denmark, directed by Isabella Eklöf as part of the Dogme 25 movement; “A Favour” from Iceland by Grímur Hákonarson; “Red Snow” from Finland by Ilja Rautsi; “Vampyr,” a Norway/Sweden collaboration directed by Arild Fröhlich; “Low Expectations” from Norway and Denmark by Eivind Landsvik; “Lisa & Lilly” from Sweden by Julia Lindström; and “My Fairytale Life” from Denmark by Nikolaj Arcel.

Opening remarks were delivered by Danish Film Institute director Tine Fischer, Finnish Film Foundation CEO Lasse Saarinen, and Norwegian Film Institute CEO Kjersti Mo, all of whom highlighted the increasing necessity of regional cooperation as the audiovisual landscape continues to evolve.

During a presentation centered on industry data and trends in Nordic filmmaking, Mo underscored how collaboration has become both a cultural and economic imperative for the region.

“In recent years, this has also developed into a deeper collaboration where we increasingly share knowledge and data across borders,” Mo said. “Because even if our industries are organized differently, we face many of the same challenges: changing audience habits, global competition, financing pressure, and technological change. So collaboration is not only cultural, it is also strategic. We compete internationally, but collaborate regionally.”

The event signals a broader effort by the Nordic institutes to present a unified international profile at major festivals and markets, positioning Nordic cinema as both artistically distinctive and structurally innovative at a time of rapid change within the global film industry.