24/03/2005

Q & A with Tomas Eskilsson, Head of Film I Väst

Cineuropa : You’ve succeeded in making Film i Väst a major co-production partner in Sweden and in the Nordic countries. What is your strategy to attract non-Scandinavian film & TV producers to the western Götaland region in Sweden?
Tomas Eskilsson: In order to attract more international co-productions, our goal is to complete the infrastructure for film production in the region which is already strong in sound post and visual effects. We will do this by offering a complete post-production chain by this autumn.
We also want to continue to build interregional co-operations like the ones Film I Väst already has with Germany (Hamburg), the UK and South Africa, with the objective to strengthen links between our family of production companies and production companies in other specific regions for co-production purposes.

What does it mean to you to be part of the Cine-Regio network?
Cine-Regio will hopefully contribute to the following:
-To strengthen the regional perspective in the European film industry and there by contributing to pluralism and better possibilities for European films to reach success in their home territory and across Europe.
-To be an advocate for ‘film regions’ in contacts with EC
-To contribute to exchange and develop regional film and media strategies
-To open possibilities for interregional co-operation in different fields.

FILM I VAST (Sweden)
Founded: 1992
Head of fund: Tomas Eskilsson
Annual budget for feature film: SEK 48m (€5,3m)
Max amount awarded to a feature film: one third of the budget
Feature films supported in 2004: 18