Source: Cannes
'The Girl With The Needle'
Sweden's major film and TV organisations have signed a letter to the government calling for an urgent change to the "first-come, first-served" funding process, which they claim saw all funds allocated in one minute in the latest funding round.
The letter, signed by representatives of eight organisations including Film i Vast, SVT and the Swedish Film Distributors Association, asks for the government "to promptly implement a change in the application process for support for audiovisual production (production incentives)."
Scroll down for the full letter
The criticism regards Section 11 of Sweden's production incentive regulations, which were introduced in 2022. The letter states that applications will be processed in the order they are received. The organisations claim that with a budget of 100m SEK (PS7.2m), that the cap is reached immediately after each funding round, preventing a fair consideration of each project. The application period for receiving support has been shortened each time. The latest announcement
clearly shows that the funds ran out in 1 minute and 7 second, leaving a margin of 327 microseconds for the next applicant. The letter suggests that the current rule be supplemented with a "weighting principle" that would allow applications to be ranked based on predetermined criteria that serve the incentive. The letter suggests complementing the current rule with a "weighting principle" through which "applications received on the same day are ranked based on certain predetermined criteria that serve the purpose of the incentive."[50m SEK in March 2024]The amount of production finance available is also a problem, according to Film i Vast CEO Mikael Fellenius, who recommends it be increased from 100m SEK to 300-400m.
"A larger budget will not only eliminate the issue mentioned in our letter, but also be more attractive to international production coming to Sweden," Fellenius told
Screen
.The organisations are yet to receive a response to their letter, although the minister has said the government will look at the issue during the investigation presented next year. The next government funding round for Swedish film and TV will likely be in October 2024.Productions supported by Film i Vast recently include Magnus von Horn's Cannes 2024 title
The Girl With The Needle
and Erik Poppe's upcoming Quisling, which will debut at Toronto.Letter to Minister of Culture Parisa LiljestrandWe, the undersigned, represent Swedish producers, co-producers, commissioners, and distributors. Together, we fund the majority of drama series and films produced in Sweden. With this letter, we wish to express our collective desire for the government to promptly implement a change in the application process for support for audiovisual production (production incentives).
It was very positive when Sweden, two years ago, as one of the last countries in Europe, introduced production incentives for film and TV. According to Regulation (2022:1386) on state support for the production of audiovisual works, the purpose of the incentive is to "increase the number of audiovisual works wholly or partially produced in Sweden," with socio-economic effects such as economic growth, increased employment, regional development, exposure of Sweden, positive effects on tourism, etc., both by enabling large Swedish productions that would otherwise be filmed abroad to be brought home and by attracting foreign productions.
We perceive that the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillvaxtverket), in implementing the incentive, has been responsive to the industry's functioning and needs. The application process has been praised as being simple and not overly complicated. In the first two years, we can state that 25 Swedish productions with a total budget of over 1.7 billion SEK have received the incentive and were filmed in Sweden.
However, the rule in Section 11 of the Regulation, which states that applications for support should be processed in the order they are received (the so-called first-come, first-served principle), has posed significant challenges, given that the budget is limited to 100 million SEK.
The background to the introduction of production incentives in Sweden is that in 2017, after a declaration by the Swedish Parliament, supported by all parties, the government tasked Tillvaxtverket with investigating the issue. The "More Film Productions in Sweden" (2017) investigation recommended that Sweden introduce production incentives urgently and that the state allocate 300 million SEK annually for this purpose. Tillvaxtverket noted, among other things, that a too-low amount in the state budget could lead to the cap being reached "at the beginning of the year" and warned that the system would then risk becoming unpredictable.
With hindsight, we can state that the current budget of 100 million SEK has resulted in a significant over-subscription of the support at each application opportunity. The principle of first-come-first-served has rewarded those who are quick to fill out the application. Each time, the application period for receiving support has been shortened. The funds in the most recent announcement ran out at 1 minute and 7 second, leaving a margin of 327 microseconds for the next applicant. The production incentive is now a part of the film study that the government launched at the start of the year. We believe that the first application rounds show that the application pressure is high and that the budget for the production incentive needs to be reviewed.
However, the film investigation will not be presented until February 28, 2025, which means that new film policy will not be in place until at the earliest 2026 or 2027. If no changes are made before then, the current application procedure will apply for another three to five application opportunities, which we do not find satisfactory.
Therefore, we appeal for the government to urgently enable a temporary solution that can apply until new film policy is in place. One solution would be to supplement the first-come-first-served rule with a simple weighting system, whereby applications received the same day will be ranked according to predetermined criteria. This will serve the incentive. We believe Tillvaxtverket is the best place to develop a rule of this kind, given its expertise in the area. We are happy to assist in this work.
Sincerely,
Eva Hamilton, chairman, Film&TV-Producenterna
Sandra Warg, CEO, Filmpool Nord
Mikael Fellenius, CEO, Film i Vast
Ralf Ivarsson, CEO, Film i Skane
Kristina Colliander, CEO, Film Stockholm
Pia Grunler, chairperson, Sweden's Film Distributors Association
Eva Beckman, program director, SVT
Fredrik Arefalk, channel and content director, TV4
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