Industry Insights – The EFM Podcast is presented by the European Film Market of the Berlinale. Hosted by industry analyst Johanna Koljonen, it delves deep into the rapidly evolving film industry.

The 2022 Nostradamus Report: Imagining a Sustainable Industry - published this May - is looking at the near future of the screen industries in the industry's broader macroeconomic, social and cultural context. In this episode, host and author Johanna Koljonen gives a brief recap of the report’s key findings discussing where we are on sustainable business models and unsustainable labour practices. With guest speaker Louise Vesth, the conversation dives into the current market situation and the challenges it poses for arthouse films. Facing those challenges, this episode is also addressing the question what a film needs to be theatrical. As the report also highlights the urgent issue of the industry’s state of mental health, the Danish producer shares how working environment issues in the film industry could be handled in a different way.

Louise Vesth is considered one of Denmark’s leading film producers. She graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 2001, the same year she started working for Zentropa. Vesth has been the producer of Lars von Trier’s films from Melancholia (2011) onwards, including Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 and 2 (2013), The House that Jack Built (2018), and the upcoming third and final installment of the legendary tv-series, The Kingdom – The Kingdom Exodus (2022). She also produced the first four movies in the massively successful series of Department Q movies from 2013 to 2018. As she was also behind the Danish blockbuster comedy Klown in 2010, she is the producer behind five of the biggest Danish box office hits of the last decade. Among her other notable producer credits are Nikolaj Arcel’s Oscarnominated A Royal Affair (2012) with Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander in the leading roles, Arcel’s Truth About Men (2010), Peter Schønau Fog’s You Disappear (2016), and most recently Christoffer Boe’s romantic drama A Taste of Hunger (2021).

Johanna Koljonen is a media analyst, broadcaster, and experience designer based in Sweden. She is co-founder of boutique consulting firm Participation Design Agency, and the author of the Göteborg Film Festival’s annual Nostradamus Report.

This podcast episode has been developed in partnership with Göteborg Film Festival where the Nostradamus report is commissioned by the Nordic Film Market and supported by Film i Väst.

The Berlinale’s European Film Market is the first international film market of the year, where the film industry starts its business. Industry Insights - The EFM Podcast puts a spotlight on highly topical and trendsetting industry issues, thereby creating a compass for the forthcoming film year. The year-round podcast is produced in cooperation with Goethe-Institut.