Takeaways Featuring Renate Reinsve Rubën Ostlund, Much More 

The 9 Oscar nominations for Norwegian Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” and two Palme d’Or awards gained by Swede Ruben Östlund are indicators of a far bigger Scandinavian inventive scene. 

That could possibly be one takeaway from Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival, Scandinavia’s greatest film-TV event, which wrapped Saturday after 5 days of vibrant dialogue and dealing at its worldwide marketplaces, the Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision. 

Highlights took in not only project and manufacturing shows, convention panels and masterclasses and a strong newsflow led by not only Europe’s superindies Banijay and Fremantle however also broadcaster networks New8 and Scandi Alliance and Charades and Dramanation, to call just a few.

The two markets underscored the vitality still coursing by the area’s movie and TV business, in addition to its enviable expertise pool. Equally, business discussions at Göteborg didn’t skirt the large challenges dealing with the Nordics, often shared by the global business at large at a time of wrenching business disruption.

Göteborg Market Attendance Soars

In 2026, the Göteborg Film Festival welcomed 2,600 accredited business and press individuals, 1,370, hailing from 47 nations, attending the Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision, Göteborg Film Festival head of business Josef Kullengård tells Variety. That’s 50% up on 2023. Just how that break up is one clue why so many producers – 500 this yr – come to Göteborg. Of business delegates, 142 had been consumers and distributors and 50 sales brokers. But Göteborg also welcomed 109 broadcast and streaming service execs and 134 representatives from funds and movie institutes. Göteborg is a goldmine of potential financing source, stream and downstream, even in an business downturn.

The Bad News

An opening part of a TV Drama Vision keynote by Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson underlined just how far business disruption has come. Entitled 28 Months Later, Content Trends 2.5 Years After Peak TV, Bisson insisted that “We are still at 75% peak TV,” with, globally, common first-run TV commissions over 2024-25 still down 25% on the peak. Scandinavia isn’t any exception: Nordic scripted collection orders plunged from 129 in 2022 to 57 in 2025. That might be put down partially to Viaplay’s implosion. Yet Nordic public broadcasters commissioned 41 scripted in the second half of 2024, just 14 in 2H 2025, Bisson tells Variety. “So many people are leaving their jobs as filmmakers,” Norway’s Tonje Søimer Guttormsen, who directs the Oscar-nominated Renate Reinsve in Göteborg Festival standout “Butterfly,” told Variety.

But a Bullish Göteborg Market Mood

That said, Göteborg’s market temper was still bullish, says Kullengård. “There was a real sense that things were boiling this year. With more people in Göteborg than ever before, the energy across the market was high – packed sessions, intense conversations and a strong feeling within the community that even though the market is struggling, there is hope and a shared sense of moving forward,” he provides.

Göteborg’s Talent Parade

A temper of hope might be attributed partially to Goteborg’s expertise parade. It’s not every competition that fields in its project and pix in submit a sizeable a part of a areas good and nice,” Kullengård tells Variety. “What truly stood out was the strength and range of Nordic talent right now – from established filmmakers presenting their third major projects, such as Milad Alami, Frida Kempff and Amanda Kernell, to senior voices like Erik Poppe, Dag Johan Haugerud and of course Ruben Östlund, alongside an exciting wave of new creators with both series and films.”

Big Premium Plays 

Netflix took off with big daring collection: Think “Money Heist” and “Dark.” Nearly 10 years later, in a far more play protected business, premium performs are at a premium. But that doesn’t imply they’ve disappeared. In one Göteborg highlight, the Scandi Alliance –TV2 Norway, TV4 Sweden and TV 2 Denmark – announced it had greenlit “Royal Blood” a historic epic set over 1807-14. In another, Dramanation’s Patrick Nebout and Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, creators of the multi-prized “Whiskey on the Rocks,” unveiled two new and decidedly premium TV collection tasks:  Nordic Noir actioner “Becker & Kempe” and Cold War heist dramedy “Made in Sweden.” “The niche and the market for premium and compelling scripted entertainment has definitely not vanished,” Nebout told Variety.

Buzz Titles

Starring Gustaf Skarsgård (“Oppenheimer”) and Fares Fares (“Chernobyl”), “Once In the Archipelago,” by Swedish director Alex Schulman, was among the greatest buzz works in progress, as was self-discovery story “Low Expectations.” Toplining Marie Ulven, better often known as singer-composer Girl in Red, it’s from another first-time helmer, Norway’s Eivind Landsvik whose “Tits” was chosen for Cannes’ 2023 main competitors. Over at TV Drama Vision, microdrama “In My Hands” impressed with its pitch, while “A Phone Rings in the Middle of the Night,” a project sure for the Berlinale Co-Pro Series, drew a large business viewers – as was to be anticipated from the first collection produced by Ruben Ostlund’s Plattform Produktion.

Festival Standouts: A New Renate Reinsve Movie and More

At the competition, other than Maria Sødahl’s winner “The Last Resort,” Renate Reinsve starrer “Butterfly” was a sizzling ticket – particularly following a number of Oscar nominations for “Sentimental Value.” It sees Reinsve in a new light (and some wild make-up) as a lady attempting to make peace together with her sister and their late mom. In the worldwide part, “How to Divorce During the War” about a relationship crumbling alongside the conflict on Ukraine was garnering consideration, even before its award at Sundance. That being said, none of the movies generated the sort of buzz that Ruben Östlund did during his presentation about the upcoming “The Entertainment System Is Down.”

That Man Rüben Östlund 

By gleefully spoiling essential plotlines – and even the ending – Östlund has confirmed as soon as again that he’s a showman in addition to an award-winning filmmaker. “When I watch a movie or hear about a great idea, I don’t care how it ends. All I want to know is: How will it be made?,” he told Variety. During the closing ceremony of the Nordic Film Market, business insiders could possibly be heard whispering in every nook, attempting to do just that. “Cinema must establish a relationship with the audience much more quickly nowadays. Anything that piques their curiosity is something you can use,” he added. Judging by the explosive reactions to his yet-unseen movie, more Nordic colleagues ought to take discover.

Where It’s At: Genre

Ask a sales agent what sells these days and the reply, more often than not, will likely be style. That in fact can soak up a broad spectrum, but it surely was noticeable how many buzz titles at the Nordic Film Market match into that vary. One of the NFM’s hottest titles, boarded by Charades, was household psychological thriller “Bloodsuckers,” ‘Midsommar’ producer Patrik Andersson. Of tasks in the NFM’s Discovery strand, physique horror title “Swine” from “The Swedish Torpedo” director Frida Kempff, Icelandic mystical adventure movie The Silver of Egill by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, had been absolutely booked up with conferences after pitches,, as was German sci-fi project “Element,” offered at the NFM’s Nordic Gateway.

Rikke Gregersen: A Name to Conjure

A Student Academy Award winner for “Dog Eat Dog” and Sundance-selected for her second quick, “The Affected,” Norway’s Rikke Gergersen is bearing out on her promise. Her feature debut, “Almost There,” another Charades pick-up exploring the “complex and often contradictory transition” from younger to full maturity, as Gregersen places it, was one among the major speaking factors at the Nordic Film Market, as was her project “Tiger.” Gregersen is ready aside by her sharp humor as she develops completely relatable however discomfiting situations. “Almost There” and “Tiger” look to be no exceptions.         

Creator Content Is Not Cat Videos

And business macro developments? At Góteborg, media analyst Johanna Koljonen answerable for its yearly Nostradamus report, said there’s a “core misunderstanding” in the business about creator media. It goes approach past the generalized — and outdated — understanding, she argued, that it refers to cat movies. Koljonen distinguished between the two sorts of people working in the business: those working in a context “where production is so expensive that it requires significant investment” and “people who can produce it cheaply or can fund it themselves.” The divide is “important,” particularly given a close to future the place the technical facet of manufacturing will most most likely get cheaper. “If you have the freedom of being on this side, don’t discard that,” she emphasised. “When we talk about cat videos, we become blind to the opportunities on this side. That’s very dangerous.”

Microdramas: Time to Jump In

During the Film Forum Sweden convention, vertical creator and showrunner Thom Woodley, emphasised how microdramas are “episodic television, compressed and re-engineered.” “We are going to see traditional platforms like Disney and Netflix experimenting [with the format],” added the veteran.

Woodley pointed out how professionals from conventional media often take a look at microdrama as a “downgrade.” The director recalled the early days of tv, when, very like with microdrama now, lack of experience mirrored the high quality of content. “But look at where television is right now. That is going to happen with vertical narrative, too, and it’s going to happen a hell of a lot faster than it happened with TV.  If you’re a creator, you can wait to see how it develops. Or you can jump in now.” 

IP: We Don’t Know Sh*t 

Speaking about IP, Koljonen introduced up “Warhammer 40,000,” the world’s most common miniature wargame, from Games Workshop. “It has a huge, insane audience. In your city, there is probably a store called Games Workshop or a branded Warhammer store. There are 570 of these in the world. In addition, their products are sold in over 7,000 independent retailers.” One famed Warhammer fan is “The Witcher” star Henry Cavill, whose ardour led him to govt produce an upcoming Prime Video adaptation. “We need to know that we don’t know shit about what normal people are into,” said Koljonen while still reflecting on the Warhammer mania “Reading the culture pages will not teach you that ASMR is going to happen.”

And Göteborg’s 2026 Deals:

*New8, the manufacturing and broadcast collaboration between eight major European public broadcasters – SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), RÚV (Iceland),  NRK (Norway), VRT (Flanders/Belgium), NPO (The Netherlands) and ZDF (Germany) – has been renewed for another three years, it announced at Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision. Series produced because of the alliance embody “Other People’s Money” and Finnish Smash “The Queen of Fucking Everything,” up for a Nordic Scripted Series Award at Göteborg.  

*Renowned for bringing new voices to the world, such as Gints Zilbalodis with Oscar winner “Flow,” Paris-based sales-production Charades announced two new world sales pickups at Göteborg: Rikke Gregersen’s “Almost There” and “Bloodsuckers,” a household thriller marking the sophomore feature of Elin Grönblom (“Ella and Friends”). 

*Fremantle’s Miso Film will get the greenlight from the Scandi Alliance for “Royal Blood,” in the Alliance first banner order. To be directed by “The Crown” helmer Erik Richter Strand , it recounting how royal households and energy gamers in Denmark-Norway and Sweden used cash, intercourse, deceit and even homicide to forge trendy Scandinavia. 

*Out in drive at Göteborg, Banijay Entertainment unveiled additional key solid for its ‘Wallander’ Reboot, Starring Gustaf Skarsgård, with Sophia Martinsson (‘Festen’) playing Wallander’s daughter, Ana Gil De Melo Nascimento (‘Sune’) his spouse and Göran Ragnerstam (‘Arn’) his father. The anticipated and extremely trendy reimagining is ready up at Jarowskij/Yellow Bird. 

 *Embodying what co-head Patrick Nebout called a mission to create calls “splashy, high-profile TV-series and films with international resonance,” Stockholm-based Dramanation unveiled two new titles: “Becker & Kempe,” a Nordic Noir crime and cop-actioner and “Made in Sweden,” as a Cold War political thriller/dramedy in the vein of dramanation smash “Whiskey on the Rocks.

* Launching two major tasks in the Nordics this January — “Snake Killer” and “VAKA,” Prime Video revealed by way of Variety an exclusive first take a look at “Murder in the Dark,” an adaptation of Dan Turèll’s extremely lauded gritty Danish noir novel that is coming out later this yr, as Prime Video’s first-phase Nordic originals are starting to see the light of day.     

*Banijay also announced that drag queen ‘amateur’ crime caper ‘Queen Heist’ and ‘liberating’ romcom ‘The Good Widow’ have been added to Banijay Finland slate, ‘Queen Heist’ rising creatively at the Banijay Bootcamp, led by Steve Matthews, Banijay head of scripted, inventive. 

*Meanwhile, Jarowskij/Yellow Bird, a Banijay company, is ready to supply a new Netflix action-comedy, “Permafrost,” directed by Patrik Eklund (“The Conference”) from a screenplay by Peter Arrhenius (“Clark”) and starring top Swedish comic  Björn Gustafsson (“Parlamentet,” “Stockholm Live”). The announcement comes as  seven of Netflix’s Top 10 most considered non-English language movies in historical past are in some approach action films: “Troll,” “Under Paris,” “Extraterritorial,” “Nowhere,” “The Great Flood,” “Counterattack” and “Ad Vitam.”

*Copenhagen-based worldwide movie sales and aggregation home LevelK has acquired world sales rights to Gunnbjörg Gunnarsdóttir’s “The Pension Heist,” the first feature to profit from the company’s strategic partnership with audience-insight company Publikum.

*Playing at Göteborg, Locarno Hit “Blue Heron” by Sophy Romvari has bought to a number of territories including Spain (Flamingo Films), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Turkey (Kinova Art Distribution) and France (Potemkine Films) – an indication that artwork movies still have a market, in the event that they tick all the proper bins.

Annika Pham contributed to this article