07/04/2003

People in Sweden, Scandinavia’s largest country and one which is rightly proud of its longstanding and deep-rooted social-democratic history, are standing in lines... queueing not for food, but to get films made. This unfortunate situation peaked last year as state subsidies – crucial for the survival of the film industry in any small country - dried up, putting the whole filmmaking chain into a stall. Gone is the euphoria of 2000 when, after a decade of gloom and doom, the local film industry began to recover confidence, thanks to a New Wave of filmmakers (Lukas Moodysson, Joseph Fares) and entrepreneurial producers (Lars Jönsson, Peter Possne, Christer Nilsson, Peter Hilltunen... to name just a few) who injected a dose of much-needed energy into the local film industry, and contributed to a phenomenal rise in the popularity of local films (not to mention a 26 per cent share of the domestic market).

But 2000 was also the year when the long-awaited Film Agreement was signed between the Swedish film industry and the government. The Agreement drew attention to the need for stronger support from the state and local TV stations, and provided the local film industry with a total SEK 100m (Euros10.798.203m) grant.
On the production-subsidy front, (aside from the usual advances allocated to film production) a new audience-related support system worth SEK50m (Euros5.399.102m) in annual grants to producers (based on box office takings and the level of private investment in films), and paid out in arrears, was introduced. Just one year after its introduction, the new support system was proving more of a handicap than an aid to film production. Ironically, resources from the audience-related fund started to run dry because there were just too many surprise hits (like Jalla! Jalla! and Together). The result was almost total paralysis of production output.

Peter Hilltunen (Illusion Film), one of the many independent producers to be hit by the sudden freeze in production subsidies, said that the audience-related subsidy system has changed, and the rates and money available today are much lower than they were initially. “This has created a negative knock-on effect as private investors who were interested in investing in projects that could access to those subsidies are now backing off, as we can’t guarantee that they will get any money back. So we rely much more on pure box office takings and are much more exposed financially.”

The acute situation improved slightly last September, when the Swedish government offered a surprise aid package of SEK80m (Euros8.638.562m) to keep the production sector going until the next Film Agreement were signed in 2004. For Peter Hald, deputy MD and Head of Production at the Swedish Film Institute, this cash lifeline from the government has improved the situation, but it’s still “not good enough”. “If you want to have a support system like the audience-related subsidies with guaranteed risk money, then you simply need more money in that fund,” he said. Hald added that since negotiations between trade associations, filmmakers, producers, the SFI and the government were already underway, concrete proposals to support and sustain the local film industry would be agreed upon by all parties prior to the signing of the 2004 Film Agreement. Hilltunen, who sits on the Board of the Swedish Film Producers Association, also said that the association would be lobbying for the audience-related subsidies to be raised from the current annual grant of SEK50m (Euros Euros5.399.102m) to SEK 75m (Euros8.098.652m). “We will also discuss different ways of attracting finance to the production sector, for instance from investors not yet involved in the film business. To try to diminish the share of state subsidies to the Swedish film financing,” he said.