Swedish Film abroad
The impact of Swedish films abroad are often overestimated. If you are Swedish and don’t agree, hear me out. Locally, Sweden see an upside, however, outside of our borders, you clearly see the limitations of Swedish film. Unless there is a unique story, english (great) speaking cast and international people or experienced film workers in key positions throughout the production, the movie won’t come far.
The problems are first of all the Swedish language and second, the small market opportunity outside of Sweden. The Swedish film industry is not at all close to Hollywood and Bollywood in terms of marketsize. The way people make film in Sweden is very different from how we work internationally. One could argue that we should be closer by now and the industry be more mainstream, sadly this is not the case.
Different reasons
The main reason to why Swedish film makers leave Sweden to work elsewhere is simply because of the market size and the fundamental differences in how we think. I take the opportunity to promote an interview about Hollywood/Swedish adaptations. The reason to why I work with foreign markets is because of the incredible value, cultural and financial. Swedish film as an industry should think seriously about it’s next step.
The Swedish film industry makes us think Swedish film is a success abroad and rightfully so but that is not completely true. We are far from bad at what we do. However, we have never seen a financial success abroad, or at least that's not what we see or hear about. Great foreign box office numbers could be a reality, if film makers changed focus to a more financial strategy and market strategy. That includes script and production value.
The problem is, no one is watching Swedish movies, or not as much as people may believe. Most of the viewers are hard core and are watching movies from European countries, in the same way we watch french movies in Sweden. The largest markets are based in both the U.S. and China and of course India but both the Indian and Chinese market are not a viable option for Swedish films for a few reasons.
The movie, Let the right one in had a very limited window in the U.S. It had some distribution in smaller "European cinemas". The film was not a financial success, It could've been though. The idea was bought buy an American production company and had an English adaptation, the reason is simply the increased audience and market size. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was a nice addition to Swedish Film.
Above is a picture from A man called Ove, a movie that will have a future american adaptation.
Swedish Film in Sweden
The movie, A man called Ove was partially funded by The Swedish Film Institute. SFI was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. It supports Swedish film making and allocates grants and funds for production, distribution and public showing of Swedish films in Sweden. It also promotes Swedish cinema internationally. The Institute also organizes the annual Guldbagge Awards.
Through the Swedish Film Agreement, between the Sweden and the film and media industry, the Government of Sweden, the TV companies which are party to the agreement, and Sweden's cinema owners jointly fund the Film Institute and thus, indirectly, Swedish film making.
At a rate of, currently, 20 films a year the Swedish film industry is on par with other comparable North European countries.
In Trollhättan Municipality there is a film production facility known as Trollywood; movies shot there include Show Me Love, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville. The movie studio Film i Väst centered here produces about half of Sweden's full-length films.
I will write an update the Swedish film industry later on but for now, this is what we have to work with.
As usual, thank you for reading and be sure to visit me on youtube or Instagram if you want to continue the conversation.