Around 200 delegates, 50 decision makers, 40 creators, 25 experts, 30 projects and at least 300 meetings… Thus read the statistics of the 19th m:brane co-production forum, running from 11-13 March this year in Malmö, Sweden. We spoke to Lennart Ström, the forum's tireless manager, to look back at three dynamic days as well as forward to further success in the years to come.

Cineuropa: The m:brane forum has just wrapped its 19th edition. Has it lived up to expectations and calculations?
Lennart Ström: Very much so, on both accounts, thank you. We aim for around 200 delegates, a pretty perfect number when it comes to the logistics around networking, holding meetings, and not least getting fed and sharing a drink with everyone. We had 192 participants this year, from 22 different countries across three continents. We launched a new venue in the new and spacious conference area in Malmö, with a very nice view of the Öresund. The delegates seemed more than pleased. Someone even dubbed it “m:brane 2.0”. A special and successful highlight was without doubt the country focus on Denmark, which dominated the jam-packed, day-long, opening industry conference. I'd call it exquisitely planned and executed from start to finish, with top players from the DFI [Danish Film Institute], DR [Danish national television], the Danish Film School and other educational facilities in attendance. We had some fantastic case studies presented in our science strand, The Non-Didactic Universe, which really were outstanding. I could go on. We don't necessarily aim to be the best, but we do aim to be very good, and I honestly feel we're not doing too badly at that.

Your pitching platform was yet again filled with lively presentations on a wide variety of projects [see the news]. Have you been able to identify any special trends, not least concerning the different formats presented?
Again, I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight the “Non-Didactic” projects, which really transcend the traditional platforms – non-scripted works depicting human cells, stars and the cosmos, Europe’s collective memory of the transatlantic slave trade, and history through 3D scanning. They are all truly immersive concepts that we will feel inclined to explore further. But in general and overall, the pitches were outstanding. They just get better and better each year.

The forum was launched in 2007, a date in the not-too-distant past, but a lot has certainly happened within the media since then. What would you say have been the biggest changes, and on the other hand, are there still some reasonably stable entities, still present after all this time?
The greatest change since then has, of course, been that the media industry faces some enormous disruption through the advent of streaming platforms and other formats where the audience can choose to watch what they call films. The broadcasters have been – and are still very much – up against great challenges in this entirely transformed media landscape, when it comes to being up to date on new strategies. Add to this a not-that-favourable economic climate these days when it comes to overcoming obstacles and driving innovation forward... We do, however, still see the need and demand for quality series. And the cinema distributors still do their utmost to find original and dynamic content for the theatres.

Next year marks edition number 20 of m:brane. Do you have any special celebrations in the pipeline?
We certainly have some plans and ideas, but nothing concrete yet. This year, we forged some new bonds and made some new contacts with partners who very much want to collaborate in the years to come – something we greatly look forward to.