On 25 September 2012, the film and television industry entered into a new film agreement for Swedish film, the 2013 Film Agreement. The agreement provides for increased resources and greater technological neutrality, and more parties have signed this agreement. Funding will increase by around SEK 30 million per year compared with the previous agreement.
A substantial part of this funding will provide new support for drama series, while funding to films for children and young people, and short and documentary films will be expanded. The agreement has been modernised through the introduction of new objectives, the possibility of allocating support to converged media and greater technological neutrality as the cinema release requirement has been removed.
The agreement applies from 1 January 2013 until the end of 2015. In September 2014, most of the parties to the Film Agreement signed an agreement extending the 2013 Film Agreement. As a result, the Film Agreement will now apply until the end of 2016.
Extension of the 2013 Film Agreement
Under Section 54 of the 2013 Film Agreement, the agreement is automatically renewed for one year if none of the parties gives notice of termination before 30 June 2014. On 26 June and 28 June, the Regional Film Funds Network and the Swedish Film and TV Producers Association gave notice of termination of the Film Agreement. However, the other parties agreed on 8 September 2013 that the film agreement of 2013 would be extended by a year. The agreement was approved on 11 September. The extension is being implemented without the two parties who have given notice of termination of their participation in the agreement but otherwise involves no substantial changes to the content of the agreement.
This means the 2013 Film Agreement will continue to apply until 31 December 2016.
Background
Film policy initiatives in Sweden are mainly financed through an agreement between the state and various stakeholders in the area of film. The first film agreement was signed in 1963.
The parties to the current agreement are the state, the Swedish Exhibitors Association, the National Federation of People’s Parks and Community Centres, the Temperance Centres’ Association, the Swedish Film Producers Association, the Swedish Film and TV Producers Association, the Regional Film Funds Network, Sveriges Television AB, TV 4 AB, Modern Times Group MTG AB, SBS Discovery TV AB and C More Entertainment AB.
Automatic advance production funding
In the 2013 Film Agreement, the parties agreed that the Swedish Film Institute would investigate the possibility of introducing automatic advance production funding to attract additional money for the production of Swedish films. Through advance production funding, producers can more easily predict the financing of productions. The funding is intended to go to films in the Swedish film market with strong potential to draw large audiences.
The agreement on the new automatic funding was signed by all parties in February 2013 and approved on 28 February. The agreement was approved by the European Commission on 6 January 2014.
http://www.government.se/articles/2015/05/the-film-agreement/