Film i Väst, Nordisk Film and SVT Join Forces to Make Bigger Swedish Movies

PARIS– Film i Väst, Nordisk Film and Swedish Television (SVT) are joining forces to co-finance and co-produce bigger-budgeted Swedish movies with international potential.

A rep from each company will meet once a month to review projects. Although the three shingles have not set a limit on the number of projects they will support, they will give out a maximum of 25 million Swedish Kronor ($3 million) from the three co-producers.

Selected projects, which don’t have to be entirely show in Swedish, will be sold by Scandi powerhouse TrustNordisk and distributed by Nordisk Films in the Nordic countries.

Tomas Eskilsson, CEO of Film i Väst, said the idea behind the initiative was to finance between 50% to 65% of film budgets in order to deliver movies in the $4 million-$5 million range, which is two times higher than the average budget of a Swedish pic.

“Our effort can be seen as a vitamin shot into the Swedish film sector that needs to improve production values in order to reach a broader audience. The aim is to raise the market share of domestic film on the Swedish repertoire,” added Eskilsson.

The three outfits will review the scriptwriting, direction, casting, vision and theme of projects to make sure they can engage a broader audience, beyond Sweden’s borders.

“Our cooperation is undertaken to motivate talented Swedish filmmakers to focus more on production quality with a potential to reach an international audience,” says Lone Korslund, head of Nordic co-productions and acquisitions at Nordisk Film.

Last year’s biggest Swedish hit was the animated family movie “Bamse and the City of Thieves,” which grossed $3.6 million at the local B.O.

Film i Vast has co-produced many internationally successful films, notably David Fincher’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” based on one Sweden’s bestselling franchises and the TV skein “Millennium” (pictured above) with Noomi Rapace.

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