SPEAKERS

Wikander joined HBO Europe in September 2020, taking on the role as commissioning editor and VP original programming for the Nordic productions. Wikander’s extensive credits from the TV industry includes head of drama at SVT and serving as executive producer on shows such as The Bridge, Real Humans, The Restaurant, Bonus Family, Spring Tide and Jordskott. As head of drama and entertainment at SVT West (Gothenburg) he amongst other things brought Sweden’s longest-running gameshow On Track into a modernized version reaching new audiences, and commissioned International Interactive Emmy awarded drama The Truth About Marika. As producer and director, Wikander ran SVT’s flagship drama High Seas for 3 years. He was also one of the founders and CEO of TV Spartacus, one of the first successful independent production companies in Sweden, where he served as creator, producer and writer of Hotel Caesar, Seven Sisters and Three Crowns – three of the most watched series in Scandinavia to date. Most recently and before joining HBO Europe, Wikander headed drama at London based Twelve Towns, including development and production of original premium dramas such as The Child in Time.

Forsman is the CEO of the Nordisk Film & TV Fond since 2019. She has previously acted as Yle’s international drama executive and EBU’s head of fiction group, with a focus on international collaboration and media strategies. When head of fiction at Swedish Yle, she commissioned and co-produced feature films, drama series and content for young audiences.

Her MA combines film, drama and TV studies. Forsman has been a speaker at forums on five continents, lectured at European master educations, produced drama and documentaries, and written for TV, radio and stage. She’s co-founded and headed the international event Helsinki Script. As the manager of the Fund she answers for funding decisions and the overall strategy.

Ennis launched Copenhagen-based REinvent Studios in 2018, functioning as an executive and producer, developing, financing and co-producing various projects, hereunder international and local TV series and feature films. Furthermore, the company offers a palette of financial products such as bridge financing and MG’s. REinvent International Sales functions as a sales agent for both their own films and series and high-profile projects out of Scandinavia, including the slate of SF Studios. Before launching REinvent, Ennis was the CEO of TrustNordisk where she worked with projects from filmmakers including Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Hans Petter Moland and Susanne Bier.

Wallestam was appointed chief content officer at NENT Group on 1 October 2019. Prior to that, Wallestam served as CEO of NENT Group Sweden. Wallestam joined the company in June 2014 as head of strategy for MTG’s free-TV and radio businesses in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. She previously worked as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group in London and New York, and at Daily Mail General Trust. Wallestam holds an MSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Vilén is the director of creative content and media at YLE. The creative content and media unit is responsible for the factual, drama, culture and entertainment content and content for children and teenagers in Finnish, Radio Symphony orchestra, the programming of the Finnish channels and Digital platform Yle Arena, the service brands, release plans and online service development. Unit is also responsible for Yle marketing.

Vilén has been a member of the management group since 2006 and has a Master of Arts in Education. Prior to YLE, Vilén held positions as creative director, Creative Content at Yleisradio Oy (2011–2020), director of programming, Yle Vision (2006–2010), director of programming, Radio Suomi (2005–2006), director of programming, YleQ (2004–2005), director of programming, YleX (2003–2005), head of music, Radiomafia (1998–2003).

His ambitions contains history, music and culture, also sports. He has two cats, two boys and a wife.

Lehtinen is the co-founder, chairman and executive producer in Fire Monkey Ltd. He is also known as the former CEO and founder of Moskito Television and co-founder of Nice Entertainment Group.

Lehtinen has created and produced some of the most successful drama and comedy series coming from Finland in the last 20 years. His work has won more than 20 national drama awards and numerous international recognitions, including Prix Europa for best drama.

His most well-known series internationally are Easy Living, Black Widows, Hooked and White Wall. Easy Living has also been remade by HBO Europe. Black Widows has been remade in multiple territories, including Mexico, Middle East, India and Scandinavia, which Lehtinen produced himself for two seasons.

In 2016 Lehtinen founded Fire Monkey together with Mikko Pöllä, in order to develope and produce drama series for Nordic market and international audience. So far Fire Monkey has produced Californian Commando for Elisa Viihde, White Wall for SVT & YLE and Bad Apples for Elisa Viihde Viaplay and Nelonen. Currently in production is Enemy of the People for MTV & C More. Fire Monkey has also several new series in development.

Palmquist is CEO of Filmlance International, part of Banijay. She came to Filmlance from HBO Nordic where she was commissioning editor and VP at HBO Nordic since 2016, with responsibility for original content for the region.

Palmquist has more than 25 years of experience in the TV and film industry, having worked as Film Commissioner at the Danish Film Institute, commissioning editor for Drama Series and Feature Films at SVT, CEO of Nordisk Film & TV Fond and head of international sales at TV2 Denmark.

She has also worked as a producer at Fine & Mellow, acquisition manager at Nordisk Film, head of PR and international sales at Zentropa and Trust Film Sales and at Filmkontakt Nord. Palmquist holds a master’s degree in Culture and Esthetics and a bachelor in World Literature.

Co-owner of Sagafilm Iceland and CEO of Sagafilm Nordic in Stockholm. With over 30 films and scripted series on his list of credits in the past 20 years, Thordarson is one of Iceland’s most prolific producers. Recent projects include Sisterhood A Viaplay Original Series 6x45min, Thin Ice 8x45min, The Minister 8x45min, Cold Courage 8x45min, The Flatey Enigma 4x60min, Stella Blómkvist 6x45min a Viaplay Original Series, CASE 9x45min a Netflix Original Series and The Falcons 6x25min.

After an prominent career as a producer, Tengblad moved on to her current role as Head of Drama at C More and TV4, where she’s focused on providing an imaginative sense for captivating storytelling and an impressive talent network to the organization. Tengblad became head of drama 2015 and have been the creative force behind several projects, starting with the tv-series Modus 2015 that became a big success for TV4. Tengblad has worked on films such as Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay. She also worked on 23 features for Yellow Birds long-running crime series Wallander. She also produced the acclaimed film With Every Heartbeat/Kiss Me in 2011.

Vogelsang has been head of fiction at TV2 Denmark since 2011 and has commissioned popular TV 2 shows such as Sea Side Hotel (2013-), The New Nurses (2018-), DNA (2019-), The Investigation (2020), Sommerdahl (2020-) and many more. During Vogelsang’s leadership TV2 Fiction has successfully secured external funding for tv-series, which has contributed to a vast increase in the number of original Danish tv-series broadcasted at TV2 over the past years – from two series a year in in 2011 to more than ten series premiering in 2021.

TV2 Fiction commissions original Danish drama productions for TV2’s linear channels (TV2, TV2 Zulu & TV2 Charlie) and for the on-demand channel TV2 PLAY. TV2 Fiction commissions approximately 10 series and acquires the rights for the same amount of Danish feature films each year. TV2 Fiction commissions or co-produce all series with independent producers.

Køhn has been head of drama at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) since 2013, after six years leading the development and production department at the Norwegian Film Institute.

Former professional experience includes TV-drama and film commissioner at the Norwegian Film Fund, co-owner and development producer at Maipo Film, head of development at Swedish Television Drama and chairman of the Board at Nordic Film & TV Fund. He has also been a writer/creator for three TV-drama productions.

NRK is a significant player in Norwegian and Nordic TV drama. In 2020, 18 series are produced internally and externally for NRK, as an important part of the channel’s strategic focus on streaming services. NRK has in recent years produced and co-produced Norwegian series such as Nobel (Prix Europa 2016), Mammon (International Emmy Award 2017), SKAM (Ros d’Or 2017), Home Ground (Best drama Nordic Serie Days 2018), State of Happiness (Best script CannesSeries 2018), Exit (Best drama International Panorama Series Mania 2019), and 22th of July (Prix Europa 2020).

In 2018 Aurø joined REinvent in order to build the international sales arm of the
newly established company doing packaging, financing and sales. Today REinvent represents series from several of the Nordic production companies internationally and the company has grown to one of the biggest sales companies in the Nordics, now representing both feature films and series. REinvent represents SF Studios’ international slate of films and TV series.

Previously, Aurø has been responsible for the sales of documentaries, formats and fiction
series from all the Nordic countries. From 2003 until 2018, she has been sales and marketing
director at DR Sales (Borgen, The Killing, the Legacy, Follow the Money) responsible for a
highly experienced sales team and making a turn around for Nordic content. She has
marketed Denmark and Nordic content on a global level and each series sold to more than
40 to 100 countries.

Aurø and her sales team at REinvent International Sales has great expertise when it
comes to evaluating the international potential and salability of a project and thus making
them travel worldwide.

Ferrer is the executive director of DR Sales. Ferrer joined Danmarks Radio (DR) in 2020. A native German and Spanish speaker, Ferrer has a long experience in international acquisitions, production and distribution, having worked in European companies and public institutions ranging from Prokino Filmverleih, Screen Ireland, Eurimages, Zentropa to the Danish Film Institute, where she helmed the international department.

Kivinen is responsible for international ready-made sales and pre-sales including remake of Nordic drama series, documentaries, factual entertainment, kids and youth programmes, music and performing arts to TV and VOD platforms Worldwide at Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company where she started working at Yle Sales from 2013 to the present moment. In addition to this, Kivinen is a trained dramaturg and holds Master of Arts degree from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Birkbeck University of London. Kivinen has expertise of marketing and selling Finnish stories in all forms Worldwide creatively and commercially and has built a network of clients from all major TV and VOD players around the World.

Having worked as a journalist in the Digital Department at the Danish state broadcaster TV 2 for a couple of years, Petersen joined the Acquisitions team in 2013. Three years later she took on the role as acquisitions executive within the genres of documentary, factual entertainment and lifestyle programming across TV 2’s portfolio of channels including SVOD service TV 2 Play. Having gradually increased her focus on formats, in 2020 Petersen also took over the responsibility of finding and purchasing rights to the best international formats for Denmark’s leading broadcaster.

Sterky has worked with creative strategies and programme development both locally and internationally since 1995. In 2006 Sterky moved on to work with more general strategic projects including running SVT’s Commissioning board process, corporate brand Strategy projects, Segmentation model development as well as continuing with the national and international creative work. Sterky has had the role as SVT’s format expert since 2003.

Sterky has been working with EBU since 2005, first as chair of the Format Core Group and as such launched the annual format event Eurovision Creative Forum, later as delegate of the TV Committee and as chair of TV Committee since 2017.

Eriksson, vice president of content and programming, heads up Discovery’s content proposition in Sweden and has a solid background in the content industry. With 25 years of experience of creating and commissioning content for both broadcast and streaming for Discovery and former SBS Kanal 5, Eriksson has deep knowledge of how to make the consumers choose your content. Daily, he is focused on defining the content strategies that makes the viewers spend more time with Swedish fastest growing streaming service discovery+ and Sweden’s 2nd biggest commercial broadcaster Kanal 5, and leveraging Discovery’s position as both local storytelling champion and a global streamer in Sweden and the Nordics.

Wiernik has worked in the industry for over two decades. She started in production and held various roles within a wide variety of productions ranging from children’s programs to reality and shiny floor entertainment. She joined TV4 in 2004 where she has since held various roles over the years; executive producer, head of acquisitions and formats, director of programs and since May 2020 heading up the newly formed Nordic department of acquisitions (in the role of director of acquisitions, formats and development). In this role, Wiernik oversees all acquisitions for all channels and platforms at TV4 Media. This includes the FTA flagship channel TV4 in Sweden and MTV3 in Finland, a handful of Swedish and Finnish basic cable channels, the Swedish and Finnish A-Vod platforms TV4 play and MTV as well as the pan Scandinavian premium pay and Svod service C more. In 2016 she was awarded the content trendsetter award. Wiernik also heads up the department of formats and development for all local commissioning for TV4 and TV4 Play Sweden.

Takila works as an executive producer at Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, her main focus being on short-form and mid-form drama for teens and young adults. For the past ten years she’s been involved with series like Dragonslayer666, Duo and Mental that have been award-winning and record-breaking blockbusters domestically. Mental is so far the most remade Finnish drama series as it has been produced also in France, Italy and Germany.

Parppei (b. 1984) is a Finnish filmmaker, screenwriter, and musician. Parppei has directed and written numerous short films (some of them award-winning, some not), released multiple music albums as the lead vocalist and songwriter, and worked as a graphic designer and illustrator. The films explore themes of friendship, love and loneliness. A Strange Summer is Parppei’s debut TV series as a writer-director.

Tolmunen has graduated as film producer from ELO Film School Finland, Aalto University. She has produced multiple short films and worked in a wide range of positions within the film industry. As of 2019, Tolmunen took over as the CEO of the production company Made. She has produced feature documentary Själö – Island of Souls that was awarded in CPH:DOX in 2020. Latest feature fiction, Finnish-French-German co-production, is in the post at the moment. Filmmaking is an exceptional way of bringing people together with a shared goal – to tell great stories. Especially themes about friendship and family are close to Ilona’s heart.

Eriksen is best known as the International Emmy-winning writer and executive producer of Mammon (NRK), which has been remade by HBO in both Poland (Pakt) and the Czech Republic (Mamon). He also the creator of NRK’s happy noir series, Livstid (For Life), and the light-hearted legal series Aber Bergen. He is currently showrunner on Furia, an 8-part thriller for Viaplay and ZDF that shines a light on right-wing extremism in Europe, which he also created.

For the last two years, he also created and hosted one of Norway’s biggest political podcasts, Trump vs the world (Trump mot Verden). This April sees his first premiere of an audio drama: a four-part thriller based on a Jo Nesbø short story, The Jealousy Man, co-written with Embla Vejer Bugge. This is the first major audio-drama from Norway’s biggest publisher, Aschehoug. Eriksen and Embla have been writing partners together since 2020.

For 10 years, Eriksen worked in the Norwegian communications-industry before finally securing a script development deal with NRK in 2010. Mammon first aired in January 2014 and, Furia, when it premieres this autumn, will be his fourth show to be produced in seven years.

Norwegian screenwriter and director Magnus Martens is internationally recognized for his ability to deliver stylish and inventive action and tense thriller while remaining staggeringly entertaining and savagely funny. He made his feature breakthrough with the slick comedy thriller Jackpot (2011) which he wrote and directed based on a Jo Nesbø story. In 2012, Martens became one of “Variety’s 10 Euro-Directors to Watch”.

Following his international breakthrough with Jackpot, Martens has directed multiple episodes for some of the biggest TV shows in the US, including Banshee, 12 Monkeys, Power, Marvel’s Luke Cage, Good Behavior, Longmire, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Will and Fear the Walking Dead. In 2019 Martens directed the pilot for the new Walking Dead spin-off: Walking Dead: World Beyond (AMC and Amazon Prime). He also directed several more episodes of the same show. The action-thriller SAS: Red Notice starring Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose and Andy Serkis, based on the books by acclaimed author Andy McNab and directed by Martens was released internationally in 2021. Martens has developed and sold numerous tv-shows for broadcasters like NBC Universal, USA Network, AMC, etc.

Hamilton studied at the Icelandic Academy for the Arts (previously The National Theatre School), and graduated from the acting programme in the spring of 2016. Prior to graduating she had started shooting the TV series Prisoners (Fangar), where she played the role of Natalie. Hamilton made her stage debut at the National Theatre of Iceland that same year, playing the role of Desdemona in Othello.

Hamilton’s film and television roles include Dísa in theNetflixco-production Valhalla Murders; Sandra in Vultures and a role in the soon to be released Netflix Original Series Katla, directed by Baltasar Kormákur.

This winter Hamilton will be performing the role of Rósa in the upcoming TV series Fractures, and will revisit the National Theatre as part of the stage ensemble Elefant. She will also perform with the Reykjavík Ensemble theatre group.
Aldís has secured the lead role in the upcoming television production Black Sands, directed by Baldvin Z, of which she is also co-writer. The shooting of Black Sands is slated to begin in March 2021.

Along with her film and stage work, Hamilton is playing the lead role of Ryn in the Icelandic adventure video game The Darken, which is set to debut in 2021. Aldís has performed in numerous television commercials, including spots for Burt’s Bees, Icelandair, and Showtime. She is the Icelandic voiceover artist for the character General Mayhem in the film Lego: The Movie 2 and for Namarii in the upcoming Disney film Raya and the Last Dragon.

Award winning Baldvin Z has been one of the most prominent directors in Iceland. He directed all 9 episodes of the critically acclaimed Case, 3 episodes of the hit TV series Trapped and with 3 feature films under his belt (Let Me Fall, Life In a Fishbowl, Jitters) Baldvin Z. is one of the most exciting and productive directors in the industry. His work has accumulated over 40 film awards, both international as well as 18 Edda awards (the Icelandic Film and Television Academy Awards). Let Me Fall, his latest film, released at Toronto Film Festival, became the second highest grossing film in Iceland’s history and Life in a fishbowl accumulated a record winning 12 Icelandic Academy Awards in 2015. Since then, he has directed Island Songs for Universal Studios, Beyond Strength, an independent documentary and The Journey a 6-episode drama series. His next directing project, Black Sands, is currently in production.

Rúnarsson has long-standing experience in the industry as a producer, specialising in international co-productions, sales and financing. Spearheading and driving the international finance- sales- and marketing advance of the company, he has also participated in the development of several projects and served as a producer or executive producer on all Glassriver’s productions e.g. Black Sands, Ordinary People (season 1-4), Fractures, Journey, My Funeral and Manners.

He has a Master’s degree in business administration and, having worked for over 10 years in international business consulting for global corporations, is vastly experienced in international financing, marketing and sales.