Yahoo News Latvia’s Riga Festival to Host Industry Platform Magnetic Series
The Riga International Film Festival in Latvia is set to host Magnetic Series, a Nordic industry platform dedicated to drama series and streamers for the Nordic region, Russia, Germany and Greenland.
Magnetic Series, which will be running Oct 16 only, will have a hybrid format allowing Baltic and Nordic producers to pitch their episodic content in person or online. The lineup of selected episodic projects will be unveiled by National Film Centre of Latvia in August.
Aside from pitching sessions, the platform will also host four panels headlined by top producers and streamers who will discuss the future of drama and digital platforms, with focus on Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland.
Next year’s edition of Magnetic Series will be expanded with a wider program and more face-to-face networking opportunities. Magnetic Series was created by the Riga festival and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) to boost economic trade.
The Latvian government recently ramped up the budget allocated to the film production industry by €2 million ($2.3 million) to €8.3 million (€9.8 million) to off-set the damage caused by the pandemic and to boost the production of drama series.
“As the country’s main national export body, we made it our priority to help the Latvian industry make crucial connections on a global level,” said LIAA director Kaspars Rozkalns.
“Now that the film industry is undergoing rapid changes, we want to be ahead of the curve and create an industry platform to discuss this new situation and identify ways to move forward,” said Rozkalns.
“In recent years, international co-productions for various formats were shot in Latvia and we want to continue what we have started,” said Rozkalns.
Th executive said Latvia was “one of Europe’s countries that is best positioned to create a safe environment for filmmakers” due to the fact that it had “very low number of COVID cases.” The country also has a 99% coverage of high-speed mobile internet, said Rozkalns.
Latvia Festival will take place Oct. 15-25.
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