20/09/2005

After two years negotiations between the Swedish government and the local film and audiovisual industries, the new Film Agreement that will regulate the whole sector for 2006-2010 has just been announced by the Swedish Cultural Minister Leif Pagrotsky.
The good news is that the Swedish film industry as a whole will get almost SEK 100 million (€ 10.7m) extra resources per year, from the current SKK 430m (€ 46m) to SKK 528m (€ 56.5m), with the Swedish state alone contributing SEK 310m (€ 33m - up 32%). Twelve partners in total signed the Film Agreement with the Swedish government, with three new TV partners on board: the broadcasting conglomerate Modern Times Group MTG, owner notably of the Metro newspaper group, the leading Nordic pay TV entertainment provider C More Entertainment (owned by Luxembourg- based SBS Broadcasting), and Kanal 5, the third most watched TV channel in Sweden. Together with Swedish public broadcaster SVT and popular commercial channel TV4, already partners in the previous Film agreement, the five TV companies will invest a total of SEK 50m (€ 5.4m) per annum into the Film Institute responsible for allocating the total film grants, as well as SEK 58m (€ 6.2m) for the co-production, co-financing and acquisition of Swedish films.

As in the 2000 Film agreement, the allocations will go mainly towards the production of quality Swedish films (around 30 each year) and their distribution both domestically and internationally. The new funding initiatives are the SEK 5m (€ 0.54m) annual grant to fight the illegal trade of film copies on any format and another extra SEK 5m (€ 0.54m) put aside to support the export of Swedish films. Furthermore, the Swedish state will now support directly some national film-related cultural activities such as film festivals, the film house, film training at schools, and regional support to film production, details of which will be disclosed next week.

But for the Swedish Film Producers Association that took part in the negotiations, the bad news for the local film industry is that the new Film Agreement is still under-financed, and another SEK 100m (€ 10.7m) would be necessary to really secure the best conditions for film-making in Sweden over the next five years. For Christer Nilson, spokesperson for the Producers Association, these extra allocations could for instance be provided by the video, DVD companies and broadband operators that have not taken any part –so far– in the new Film agreement. A position share by the Swedish Cultural Minister who said at the press conference announcing the new Film Agreement: "All the parties here present have all taken full responsibility over the Swedish film industry, but we are disappointed by the fact that the video, DVD and broadband sectors have not been involved. We have written in the Agreement that they are welcome to join" he added.