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After the hopeful signs of recovery over the last two years, attendance in all five markets dropped again in 2024, by a small margin of 3% in Denmark to nearly 13% in Norway. Post Covid effects and Hollywood strikes that led to a lack of U.S. tentpoles were blamed for the decline, however mitigated in some territories by the strong performance of domestic fare.

In Finland, local titles secured a record 31.6% market share, with the local epic love story “Stormskerry Maja” leading the charge. In Sweden, the local champion was the heart-warming documentary “The Last Journey” in which the TV personalities Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson (aka Filip & Fredrik) travel to France to rekindle the zest for life of Filip’s aging dad. The Swedish Oscar entry largely contributed to the country’s 22% market-share and biggest ticket sales in seven years.

In Iceland, it was Hollywood-Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur who delivered the...

The Danish thriller Boundless is the fifth installment in the Department Q movie series, a cinematic adaptation of a Nordic-Noir crime fiction series of the same name written by Jussi Adler-Olsen. The series chronicles the investigative procedures led by the titular, specialized branch of police, but given each of the cases is independent and self-contained, viewers don’t need to fret about continuity. Boundless follows the trio of Department Q investigators, Carl Mørck, Rose Knudsen, and Hafez el-Assad, reopening a cold murder case after events from the past begin to make their presence felt through situations that become increasingly personal to the investigators. While the case itself juggles with a number of themes and topics, ranging from necrophilic artists to hokey spiritual cults harboring dark secrets, past trauma, and dysfunctional relationships, a lack of suspense and a compelling end make this entry a one-time watch. There is definitely some inspiring...

Copenhagen-based TrustNordisk continues to score with the thriller “Boundless,” starring Ulrich Thomsen as maverick detective Carl Mørck from author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s “Department Q” crime series.

The latest deals were closed with Plaion for Germany and Austria, Movies Inspired for Italy, Cinemania Group for former Yugoslavia and Albania, Media4Fun for Poland and Palace Films for Australia and New Zealand.

A total of 26 territories now hold the rights including France (Wild Bunch Distribution), Spain (Vértigo Films) and Switzerland (Frenetic Films). According to TrustNordisk’s sales manager Frederik Hemmingsen, 65% of the buyers are the same ones who acquired earlier “Department Q” films.

Currently ranking second at the 2024 Danish box office with over 311,000 admissions, “Boundless” is the second of six “Department Q” standalone features produced by Nordisk Film Production Denmark, after “The Marco Effect.” Four earlier film adaptations produced by Zentropa turned into major hits: “The Keeper of Lost Causes,” “The Absent One,...

In one of its major recent scripted pick-ups, Zdf Studios has acquired international distribution rights to “Lume,” an eco thriller set against the building crisis of endemic wildfires on the northern Portugal-Spain border which is devastating its countryside.

The production-distribution powerhouse of one of Europe’s biggest public broadcaster powerhouses, Zdf Studios is bringing “Lume” to market at this week’s Mipcom trade fair.

The Zdf pick-up is just the latest sign of interest from international companies and institutions in “Lume.” Warner Bros. Discovery’s platform Max will stream the series in Spain and Portugal, airing simulcasting with Rtp and Televisión de Galicia (Tvg), the public broadcasters of Portugal and Galicia, Spain’s North-West region.

“Lume” was also one of nine E.U. series which won co-financing this June in the second round of the Council of Europe’s pilot program for Series Co-Production Support. The grants target high-quality productions.

Yoshi Barrigas appeared as Philip in the independently produced Christian historical series The Chosen, but in the most recent season of the show, the biblical figure is played by a new actor. Philip, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ in the Bible, first appears in The Chosen in season 2, episode 2, "I Saw You". Originally a disciple of John the Baptist (David Amito), Philip becomes an ardent follower of Jesus when he arrives and proves to have valuable knowledge of life traveling on the road and ministry that the rest of the apostles all learn from.

Before The Chosen, Yoshi Barrigas worked as a director and actor, directing two short films, A Comfortable Suffering and Boundless. He went on to appear in a few small roles in popular TV shows, appearing in the cast of The Big Bang Theory, Six, and Criminal Minds. His breakout performance came in 2021 when he...

Expanded to four full days, Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria, a joint venture of the Fundación Secuoya and Egeda, Spain’s large rights collection society, opens its doors for its third edition on Tuesday Oct. 3, running all week at Madrid’s Matadero.

I & IP is a market, thanks to its Iberscreenings showcase, and ever more a co-pro forum as well as a massive financing emporium with 149 (sic) projects being pitched behind closed doors at Platforms, Producers Pitch sessions.

The event takes place post-peak TV, however, with a new sense of realism and calculation flooding the world’s TV and film industries. A now robust conference strand looks set to debate key issues and market trends.

Two weeks out from the event, Variety sat down with Iberseries director Samuel Castro of the Grupo Secuoya and Adriana Castillo, who heads up Egeda’s office in Mexico, to check out their take on...