29/10/2003

The Swedish Film Institute (SFI) has been awarded Skr 4m from the Bank of Sweden’s Jubilee Fund to set up and develop ‘Ingmar Bergman Interface’, an international website and database presenting the Swedish master, his work and life.

The new website will be the main source of information about Bergman and meeting place for his wide fan base around the world. “We are very happy for the support from the Bank of Sweden”, said Åse Kleveland, Head of the SFI. “We have been preparing this ambitious project for over a year. Now we can get on with the work for real! The international interest over Ingmar Bergman is very big, probably bigger than we think here in Sweden. Although the English website will focus on Bergman and his art, it will also be used as an international spearhead for Swedish films in general”.
Kleveland went on to say “Thanks to invaluable archive materials donated to the SFI by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, the Institute is able to organise world events focusing on the great living legend. Tomorrow, for instance, (October 30) will be the opening of ‘Before Ingmar became Bergman’, an exhibition in Rome’s Palazzo Fontana di Trevi, accompanied by the biggest retrospective on Bergman ever presented in Italy with 37 of his works”.