Getting Your Money Back: Swedish Funding Institutions and Questions About Quality Films

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2023.595

Keywords:

film funding, film policy, Sweden, Swedish Film Institute, film production, film industry

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which policymakers, national institutions, and film funding bodies try to navigate the current challenges for Swedish cinema, and if/how distinctions such as “commercial value”, “circulation potential” and “quality” remains important criteria for them. This is done by analyzing reports and interviewing people from both the industry and funding bodies.

 

References

Bondebjerg, I., & Novrup Redvall, E. (2011). A Small Region in a Global World. Patterns in Scandinavian Film and Media Culture’, CEMES Working Papers, No. 1. University of Copenhagen, ISSN: ISSN 1904-8025.

Dahlström, M., & Hermelin , B. (2007). Creative industries, spatiality and flexibility: The example of film production. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 61 (3), 111-121. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950701553863

Eskilsson, T. (2022). Public Film Funding at a Crossroads: A Film i Väst Analysis Report. Retrieved December 21, 2022, from https://analysis.filmivast.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Public-Film-Financing-at-a-Crossroads-download.pdf.

European Audiovisual Observatory. (2019). Mapping of film and audiovisual public funding criteria in the EU. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://rm.coe.int/mapping-of-film-and-audiovisual-public-funding-criteria-in-the-eu/1680947b6c

FOCAL. (2016). MEDICI, The Film Funding Journey, Sixth Workshop Report. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://focal.ch/medici-training-2012-2019/reports/docs/MEDICI_Sixth_Workshop_Report.pdf.

FOCAL. (2017). MEDICI, The Film Funding Journey, Seventh Workshop Report. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://focal.ch/medici-training-2012-2019/reports/docs/MEDICI_Seventh_Workshop_Report.pdf.

Furhammar, L. (1998). Filmen i Sverige: En historia i tio kapitel. Stockholm: Bra böcker i Samarbete med Filminstitutet.

Hedling, O. (2010). The Regional Turn: Developments in Scandinavian Film Production’ in Swedish Film: An Introduction and a Reader (M. Larsson & A. Marklund, Eds.) (pp. 334-345). Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Hedling, O. (2016). ‘Cinema in the Welfare State: Notes on Public Support, Regional Film Funds, and Swedish Film Policy’ in A Companion to Nordic Cinema (M. Hjort & U. Lindqvist, Eds.) (pp. 60-77). West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.

Hill, J., & Kawashima, N. (2016). Introduction: Film policy in a globalised cultural economy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22(5), 667-672. Retrieved December 25, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2016.1223649

Jansson, M., Papadopoulou, F., Stigsdotter, I., & Wallenberg, L. (2021). The final cut™: Directors, producers and the gender regime of the Swedish film industry. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(6), 2010-2025.

Jensen, J. R. (2018, January 27). Göteborg: Swedish Industry Debates New Government Movie Policy. Variety. Retrieved December 25, 2021, from https://variety.com/2018/film/festivals/goteborg-swedish-industry-debates-new-government-movie-policy-1202678992/

Koljonen, J. (2022). Nostradamus Report: Imagining a Sustainable Industry. In Göteborg: Göteborg Film Festival. Retrieved December 21, 2022, from https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/GFF22-nostradamus-digital.pdf.

McElroy, R., & Noonan, C. (2022). Film Policy, Social Value, and the Mediating Role of Screen Agencies. A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value, 382-400.

Ministry of Culture Sweden. (2012). The 2013 Film Agreement’, Stockholm: Ministry of Culture,. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.filminstitutet.se/globalassets/4.-om-oss/svenska-filminstitutet/engelsk-media/the-2013-film-agreement.pdf

Nordisk Film & TV Fond Official Website (n.d.). Nordisk Film & TV Fond- Partners and Board. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/about-us/partners

Nordisk Film & TV Fond. (2021a). Guidelines [English] 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/assets/download/Guidelines_English_2021.pdf.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond. (2021b). Co-Producing with the Nordic Countries, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.ses.fi/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NFTVF_Co-producing-with-the-Nordic-countries_2021.pdf.

Statskontoret . (2019). From the Film Agreement to a governmental film policy. An analysis of the activities of the Swedish Film Institute (2019:9). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.statskontoret.se/in-english/publications/2019/from-the-film-agreement-to-a-governmental-film-policy.-an-analysis-of-the-activities-of-the-swedish-film-institute-20199/

Swedish Film Institute Official Website. (2007). ’Harry Scheins kvalitetsbegrepp’. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.filminstitutet.se/sv/nyheter/2007/harry-scheins-kvalitetsbegrepp

Swedish Film Institute. (2012). Financing of Film: A comparison of public film funding in eight European countries. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.filminstitutet.se/globalassets/2.-fa-kunskap-om-film/analys-och-statistik/publications/other publications/financing_of_film_a_comparative_overview_final.pdf.

Swedish Film Institute Official Website (2015). The New Film Policy. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.filminstitutet.se/en/ovrigt/the-new-film-policy/.

Swedish Film Institute. (2022). Facts and Figures 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from https://www.filminstitutet.se/contentassets/2a75657eb0ab4a2c9b44cb2dc642fcd0/facts-and-figures-2021.pdf.

Vermeulen, R. (1997). Swedish National Cinema: The Dynamics of a National Film Industry in the 1990s [Master's thesis, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam].

Vesterlund, P. (2010). Quality in the welfare state: Some remarks on a document from the archive of Harry Schein. Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 1(1), 25–28. Retreived December 21, 2021, from https://doi.org/10.1386/jsca.1.1.25_1

Westerståhl Stenport, A. (2013). ‘“We Train Auteurs”: Education, Decentralization, Regional Funding, and Niche Marketing in the New Swedish Cinema’, in The Education of the Filmmaker in Europe, Australia, and Asia (M. Hjort, Ed.) (pp. 85-104). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Downloads

Published

2023-10-20

How to Cite

Cerrahoğlu, Z. (2023). Getting Your Money Back: Swedish Funding Institutions and Questions About Quality Films. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 11(1), 387–412. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2023.595

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2023): Fall 2023

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Zehra Cerrahoğlu

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.