21/05/2007

Film i Väst, the biggest regional film centre in Scandinavia, announced yesterday at Cannes that this year it has invested almost €6m into 20 films and television series worth approximately €70.5m.

At a press lunch to which all production partners were invited, Tomas Eskilsson, head of Film i Väst, said that 60% of the projects are Swedish productions, and the rest international co-productions that will use the company’s Trollhättan studios and facilities.

The international projects lined up includes the French majority co-production Les Grandes personnes by first-time director Anna Novion, starring Jean-Pierre Darroussin. The film, set to start shooting this summer on Sweden’s west coast, is produced by Christie Molia in France in co-production with Stockholm-based French producer Olivier Guerpillon (DFM Fiktion). The film is being sold by Memento Films.

Two Irish/Swedish co-productions were also supported by Film I Väst this year (see article): Summer of the Flying Saucer by Martin Duffy and Kisses by Lance Daly. “We hope of course that this collaboration will result in Swedish films being financed in Ireland in the future,” said Eskilsson.

On the Swedish side, Film I Väst has just hired former Trust Film Sales CEO Anna-Karin Wolfsberg to help Swedish producers set up an international strategy for their films.

An impressive list of Nordic feature films, documentaries and TV series make up Film i Väst’s slate, including five films produced or co-produced by Zentropa, such as Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Pojkar och Flickor Dansar (lit. “The Boys and Girls are Dancing”) and Anders Morgenthaler’s Ekko [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Zentropa CEO Peter Aalbæck Jensen confirmed that his company would shift more of its production activities to Film i Väst because “they are visionaries, and we’re tired of Denmark!”

Another big Scandinavian name announced is Lukas Moodysson, who will make all the studio work in Trollhättan for his first English-language film, the €7.5m Mammut produced by Memfis Film.