London-based documentary specialists Dogwoof and Danish production company Elk Film have revealed a commercial partnership to develop and produce documentary projects.
The deal will involve a project slate of eight to 10 feature documentaries and documentary series where Dogwoof, Elk Film and the Danish Growth Fund Vaekstfonden will co-fund development. This will be The Danish Growth Fund’s first venture into documentary film development and production. Dogwoof and Elk will co-produce the projects, with Dogwoof’s fund T-Dog also acting as financiers on some of them.
Dogwoof and Elk previously worked together on “The Lost Leonardo,” which Elk produced and Dogwoof acted as financiers, EPs, sales agent, striking a multi-territory deal with Sony Pictures Classics, and also distributed the film theatrically in the U.K.
Dogwoof CEO Anna Godas said: “Dogwoof has been aggressively growing its financing and production arm in the last few years. Elk is the first of several production partnerships we’re working on. The purpose here is to partner with like-minded entrepreneurs with growth ambitions, open to looking beyond the usual commissioning or co-production models. It’s about finding the optimal balance between traditional models and more innovative funding approaches.”
Oli Harbottle, head of distribution and acquisitions at Dogwoof, said: “Our objective is to curate commercial, top quality, truly global projects without being tied to a specific formula. One of our top priorities is to nurture talent and develop stories we believe in. Market demand for documentary content is growing and buyers are increasingly looking for projects that work for audiences across the globe. We are ideally positioned for that.”
Andreas Dalsgard, CEO, Elk Film, said: “With a strong public funding system behind us in Scandinavia, Elk Film has a proven ability to bridge the best of both private and public funding in the rapidly expanding market for reality based storytelling. Dogwoof’s position and experience with talent, sales, financing and distribution is a great match with Elk Film’s extensive experience in developing and producing creative content. Development is high risk, and we’re proud that Dogwoof and The Danish Growth Fund are ready to bet on Elk Film.
Trine Løve, senior relationship manager at Vaekstfonden, added: “When Vaekstfonden finances Danish companies, it also has to create a return to society. And creative companies and projects contribute with a return in form of both jobs and cultural value. At the same time, they put Denmark on the world map. A financial return is also a key factor for us in any project, but when both cultural and financial value can be created in combination, it provides an excellent business case.”
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