Aniara’s producer Annika Rogell joins Art & Bob Film & Drama

The fast-expanding Swedish production powerhouse is beefing up its team to ramp up its film & drama slate.

Rogell has a solid track record of award-winning films such as Sanna Lenken’s youth drama My Skinny Sister, Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s sci-fi Aniara and Göran Olsson’s documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.

Her last production for her company Tangy Film is The Opponent (working title) by Milad Alami (The Charmer, When the Dust Settles). The psychological thriller shot in Persian and Swedish languages deals with masculinity, sex and violence. The film backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond will be released by Sweden’s TriArt in 2022.

Commenting on her new position as in-house producer at Art & Bob, Rogell said: “After several years as a self-employed, I am very much looking forward to being part of a larger company and context, which gives me the freedom to focus exactly on what I want and hopefully can do: produce quality movies and TV series.”

Besides Rogell who joined Art & Bob in May, the company has also hired the established line producer Hadis Jabbari (Snabba Cash series, The Lawyer) as production manager, starting later this year. Jabbari was also producer of the youth series Cryptid.

Maria Dahlin, CEO of Art & Bob’s Film & TV Drama division said she is pleased to welcome the new production recruits who will help consolidate the company’s scripted slate, consisting of a high-end drama series, a comedy series and a feature film, due to start production in 2022.

Co-owned since 2018 by the investment group Co-Made Sthlm, Art & Bob is headed by co-founder Jan Blomgren who also runs Art & Bob Postproduction, while Janca Hodann Söder is Head of Art & Bob Television, working alongside Dahlin, Head of Film & TV Drama.

Current productions include discovery+’s original series Mäklarna (reboot of the SVT hit show) directed by Patrik Eklund, based on a script by Ulf Malmros. After the successful launch of season 1 in May, Discovery Networks Sweden has ordered a new season from the same creative team.

Other scripted projects include the feature film Amina by Ahmed Abdullahi (2019 Guldbagge winner of the short film The Martyr) based on a script by Mona Masri.

The titular character Amina is a single mum, struggling to get back to her true passion of MMA fighting, while raising her young daughter. Against all odds, she’s selected for the world championship and is faced with the moral dilemma of choosing between being a successful athlete or a successful mother. The film will go into production in October.