North Star Film Alliance After careful consideration the project has changed its name from "New Nordic Film Alliance" to "North Star Film Alliance" to avoid confusion with one film festival. Nevertheless the project acronym will stay the same - NNFA. (NNFA)

P1 Competitive economy

1.3. More exports by the Central Baltic companies to new markets

Central Baltic

01.05.2018 - 30.04.2021

1.237.054 EUR

969.377 EUR ERDF

The main aim of the cross-border cooperation project "North Star Film Alliance" is to substantially increase exports within the film production sector in Estonia, Latvia and Finland. The objective is that by the year of 2021 the region has attracted 25% more foreign film productions and that at least 65 SMEs from the region's film production sector have benefited from servicing an international production. Production in the context of this project stands for filming movies, TV series and advertisements in the Central Baltic region.

For a coherent and productive approach, the project activities have been divided into three interrelated actions - (1) benchmarking the current situation in the region's film production sector and global future trends of film production, (2) developing a comprehensive market strategy and finally (3) efficiently executing the market strategy. The underlying activity through all three phases is the cross-border cooperation between project partners and associated partners.

For reaching the set objective it is crucial to address the current need of developing and introducing the region worldwide as an acknowledged film area providing an excellent and wide array of high standards services. Combining the advantages and strengths that the three partner countries have will result in a much bigger regional impact. The volumes that can be reached by means of this cooperation are far greater than what each country separately could ever achieve. Instead of competing and duplicating investments these countries will work together to resolve joint problems under one purpose - to attract vast productions from new markets to substantially increase SMEs export in the region's film production sector.

Lead Partner

Eesti Filmi Instituut

Country: EE

www.filmi.ee

Partner budget: 210.987 EUR

Amount of ERDF funding: 174.001 EUR ERDF

Project Partners

Sihtasutus Filmitootmise Ekspordi Liit

Country: EE

-

Partner budget: 282.915 EUR

Amount of ERDF funding: 233.320 EUR ERDF

Nacionalais kino centrs

Country: LV

http://nkc.gov.lv/en/

Partner budget: 0 EUR

Amount of ERDF funding: 0 EUR ERDF

Helsingin kaupunki

Country: FI

www.hel.fi/en

Partner budget: 508.208 EUR

Amount of ERDF funding: 368.298 EUR ERDF

Rīgas domes Pilsētas attīstības departaments

Country: LV

http://www.rdpad.lv

Partner budget: 234.944 EUR

Amount of ERDF funding: 193.759 EUR ERDF

Associated Partners

Business Finland

Country: FI

Latvijas Filmu Servisa Producentu Asociācija

Country: LV

Nacionalais kino centrs

Country: LV

Nacionalais kino centrs

Country: LV

Expected results

Achieved results

Project result in category -
New cluster co-operation exporting to new markets

NNFA increased exports of film productions

The project targeted to increase exports within the film production sector in Estonia, Latvia and Finland. Production in the context of this project was defined as for filming movies, TV series and advertisements in the Central Baltic region. Within film production sector the export occurs through servicing international productions that take place in the home country.

For reaching the set objective it is crucial to address the current need of developing and introducing the region worldwide as an acknowledged film area providing an excellent and wide array of high standards services. Combining the advantages and strengths that the three partner countries have will result in a much bigger regional impact.

Project developed and executed a large-scale international marketing strategy to provide the target markets with info that the regions co-operate to provide sufficient number of crew members, different needed technology and also expertise for specific tasks needed for large scale productions. The project received positive feedback from foreign producers, especially from the North American market, who considered the region more attractive when getting to know three countries’ strengths combined as homogeneous region and providing a wide array of services with high standards for their large international productions. The high interest rate towards B2B meetings and region FAM tours when possible confirmed that volumes that can be reached in 3 countries cooperation are far greater than what each partner separately could ever achieve. 

NSFA countries participated at different international film festivals and markets in Europe, Asia, and North America, created two public online presentations for the North American and Japanese market, the latter one with simultaneous translation. These events had both highly valuable attendance. Due to COVID restrictions 30 B2B companies’ meetings were arranged by the project agent in Tokyo and 24 B2B online company meetings were arranged in North American market for key players like Paramount, Warner Bros and Amazon Studios.

More than 80 SMEs participated in project activities as participating in project festival booth, agent meetings, B2B meetings or servicing the production. Since the tailormade roadshows of the project could not be executed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, showcases and B-to-B meetings partly replaced the content of roadshows and face-to-face meetings with industry professionals, which resulted with high interest in FAM tours when the travel restrictions allow. Project received several production inquiries, and one bigger scale production took place in partner country (Latvia).