08/02/2007

This year has got off to an excellent start for Swedish films, both domestically and internationally: five films are currently in the Top 10 at home and six others (features and shorts) will screen at the Berlinale.

The five titles in the Top 10 are youth films Rosa: The Movie by Manne Lindwall (number two behind US hit Night at the Museum) and Lina’s Diary by Hella Joof (3); the comedy Göta Canal 2 (fourth with some 800,000 admissions after six weeks); Johan Brisinger’s drama Suddenly (Underbara älskade) [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in seventh position with almost 200,000 admissions; and Martina Bigert’s All About My Bush (10).

"What a promising start to the new film year!" said Swedish Film Institute CEO Cissi Elwin. "I've just returned from a very inspiring visit to the Göteborg Film Festival, where the atmosphere and talk about Swedish films was really buzzing. There are some very talented filmmakers here in Sweden, and we at the Film Institute are keen to give them all the support we can."

Appointed almost a year ago as head of the SFI, Elwin kept a low profile the first few months, witnessing the slow but steady decrease in admissions for local films. However, last November she announced a major re-shuffling at the SFI and a re-thinking of the organisation’s production strategy to make fewer but higher quality films.

Unfortunately, Elwin, who has had to cancel her trip to Berlin for personal reasons, will not be able to celebrate the exceptionally strong presence of Swedish films in the festival’s official selection along with the rest of the Swedish delegation and industry representatives.

Guldbagge winner Kidz in Da Hood [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ylva Gustavsson and Catti Edfeldt will screen in Generation KPlus, When Darkness Falls by Anders Nilsson in Panorama and three short films are competing in the Generation KPlus category.