NICE-Festival is a combined arts festival celebrating Nordic art and culture based in the North West of England, taking place from 19th November until 3rd December 2009, and subsequently every year within a similar time frame. Our primary focus is to provide a showcase for contemporary Nordic art and culture through a series of events carried out in conjunction with the main cultural centers in the North West. NICE is setting the scene for long term collaborations, exchanges, cultural and economic development between the North West and the Nordic countries. The NICE-Festival film programme will include a selection of feature film premieres, animations, documentaries, shorts, and artist film & video, taking place at FACT, Novas Contemporary Urban Centre, and other venues across Liverpool City Centre. Films featured will come from across the Nordic countries – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden - to premiere in the North West, many of which will never have been seen in the UK before. As well as working with our partner venues, NICE will be collaborating on a unique event with Liverpool’s LGBTI film festival, Outsiders, and is proud to be working with the Finnish Film Foundation, AV-Arkki, the Icelandic Film Centre, the Estonian Film Foundation and the Swedish Film Institute. On top of this, NICE-Festival welcomes submissions of short films to be part of the festival's moving image programme: films will be selected to screen as part of a shorts programme at Novas Contemporary Urban Centre and / or before our feature films at FACT.