The Dogma 25 movement is spreading.
Tom Tykwer, Kurdwin Ayub, İlker Çatak, Nora Fingscheidt and Helene Hegemann have joined forces as a group to create five independent films under its umbrella, in order to create “free and unpredictable cinema.”
This was announcement comes exactly one year after Dogma 25 bowed at Cannes, with five Danish directors – May el-Toukhy, Milad Alami, Annika Berg, Isabella Eklöf and Jesper Just – announcing their projects.
According to the organizers, the new chapter in Dogma history has arrived at a time “when cinema faces major structural challenges: productions are becoming more expensive, financing increasingly fragmented and complex, while studios worldwide are prioritizing safety over innovation.”
It “creates a counterpoint where filmmakers can freely express themselves, beyond calculated expectations.”
Dogma was first launched in 1995. You can find the list of new rules here.
Following the Danish model, the plan is to secure a base financing for all five films, it was stated. On board are X Verleih – as the German-language distributor – and TrustNordisk as the international sales agent. ZDF and Arte are planned to enter as the broadcasting partners, while MOIN Film Fund has been confirmed as the first regional funding body.
The German Dogma movement is emerging as a co-production between X Filme Creative Pool and Zentropa Germany.
On the part of X Filme, the project is produced by Jorgo Narjes, Uwe Schott, and Tom Tykwer; on the part of Zentropa Germany, by Solmaz Azizi, Louise Vesth, and Tine Mikkelsen. The feature film by İlker Çatak is overseen by Ingo Fliess as producer. It is a co-production of if…Productions, X Filme and Zentropa Germany.
Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Netflix’s involvement in the five first Dogma 25 films, announced last week.
Under the deal signed with Zentropa, the giant U.S. streamer will release the Dogma 25 titles in the Nordics after their local theatrical run via Nordisk Film Distribution, to be followed by the airing on Danish pubcaster DR.
“The window between the films’ cinema release and their showcase on Netflix will be between six-to-eight months, which is the traditional window in Denmark between theatrical and SVOD. So our agreement with Netflix doesn’t differ from the ones we have for all our other films, which is important,” producer and Zentropa co-managing director Louise Vesth told Variety.
“We are thrilled about our collaboration with Netflix, their very first pre-buy with us,” Vesth continued.
“I have been in discussion with them for some years, just to understand how they work. At Zentropa, we build catalogues and we protect the rights for our filmmakers and for our company, so it wasn’t really possible before to work with the Netflix business model, until early this year. We had a conversation because the Dogma 25 is a brand, and I strongly believe that Netflix – and the filmmakers – will gain enormously from building this artistic and auteur-driven brand.”
She added: “Branding is the new way of helping filmmakers and artistic films to get a strong ground. Like here in Cannes. Hollywood [the masters in branding] may be disappearing. This is a chance for us in Europe to fill the gap and be better at building brands, and this is what we’re doing at Zentropa with Dogma 25.”
First out among the five Nordic Dogma 25 titles will be Eklöf’s BDSM love story “Mr Nawashi “ starring Esben Smed (“A Fortunate Man,” “The Last Resort”) and newcomer Tanya Holm Andersen.
Inspired by Eklöf’s personal experience, the pic follows Katarina, a talented singer, but somehow lacking self-discipline, who flourishes -both mentally and physically-when she enters a BDSM online relationship with the mysterious Mr. Nawashi. However, the mutual attraction quickly spirals into obsession and dependency.
“What I had with this guy was a consensual BDSM relationship where you know you’re playing a very dangerous game. But it can also be very beautiful and extremely exciting, because fear and excitement are so closely linked. I’ve never had so good sex in my life before or after!“ Eklöf told Variety.”
Commenting on her Dogma 25 filming experience, Eklöf said: “I’ve never been under so much pressure, not only because of the creative constraints, but because it’s my own life story, and I have an obsession with making it authentic.”
Filming of “Mr Nawashi” is underway and will be delivered in 2027. Next up are Annika Berg, Jesper Just films to completed in 2027.
“May [El el-Toukhy] will probably start later this year, early 2027, and Milad [Alami] as well. They have other projects that they need to finish first,” said Vesth.
All Dogme 25 films are handled internationally by TrustNordisk.
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