The boom in streaming and TV series is creating fresh career paths for rising filmmaking talent, according to Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur.

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Speaking during the latest ScreenDaily Talk, the acclaimed writer/director said: “It’s a very different world because TV is more creative than it used to be. It’s more open to different storytelling… and all this is changing greatly for the talent.”

Kormakur, whose credits include action features 2 Guns, Everest and Adrift, is also behind TV series such as Trapped and Netflix’s Katla.

“All the directors I’ve introduced on Trapped have had offers from abroad,” he said. “That’s a big thing for Iceland, which is a small place. I’m very proud of director Ugla Hauksdóttir, who is now directing The Power [for Amazon Studios] and is on the rise, and this will now make things easier in getting her first feature made… Opportunity comes when things are changing.”

Kormakur was speaking from Tallinn in Estonia, where he was supporting Black Nights Discovery Campus, an international education programme that will offer ongoing courses, workshops and masterclasses for emerging film professionals.

Also part of the Talk was Black Nights’ festival director Tiina Lokk, who said: “Discovery Campus is a training platform for film professionals but we also want to bring in composers, designers, costumers, make-up artists and more who have not previously worked in film.

“This has become more important because of the Covid issue, which has seen many people leave the industry. We are trying to solve the problem… and have started to train builders to become set builders or electricians who might want to work in film lighting. Over the next year, we will host online courses and perhaps an in-person session once per quarter.”

Rising Swedish director Ninja Thyberg, whose debut film Pleasure premiered at Sundance, was also in Tallinn as part of the Discovery programme and said: “It has also been great to meet someone like Baltasar and get advice from someone who is further ahead, because I’m going into something unknown and trying to learn and understand what I’m entering right now.”

Thyberg has been signed by Warner Bros to write and direct a remake of George Miller’s 1987 fantasy-comedy The Witches Of Eastwick.

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