Film consumption on VOD increased drastically in 2020 to 67% of film viewing across all platforms, counterbalancing the 64% drop in cinema admissions due to the pandemic.

The Swedish Film Institute’s annual report published on Wednesday reveals the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on film consumption in Sweden and the clear shift from cinema to streaming viewing.

“2020 was a challenging year for Swedish film, to say the least,” said Josefin Schröder, strategic analyst at the Swedish Film Institute. “The whole value chain was affected, from cancelled and more expensive productions, to loss of revenue for distributors and cinemas,” she noted, underlying the digital development, which “greatly intensified during the pandemic.” But despite all the challenges, interest in film was ‘considerable’ and even surged, according to Schröder.

Here under are some key point summaries from the SFI’s annual report, which provides comprehensive information about film releases, consumption, production funding, financing, gender equality in film for 2020.

  • Cinema admissions dropped 64% year on year due to Covid-19 restrictions. The year started strongly the first quarter, but most venues had to close the second quarter. Cinemas reopened later in the year, with strict per screen capacity limits.
  • Just over 240 feature-length films were released, against nearly 300 in 2019. Conversely film premieres on VOD increased sharply, from just a few in 2019 to around 30 in 2020.
  • Film viewing on VOD platforms increased from 47% in 2019 to 67% in 2020.
  • Swedish film market-share at 26.8% was the highest in the last five years and twice the 2019 level, thanks to the lack of competition from Hollywood blockbusters that usually take the lion-share of the Swedish market.
  • 19% of Swedish releases were kids and youth films, against only 8% in 2019.
  • Swedish documentary releases remained relatively stable despite the pandemic (20 film premieres in 2020 against 22 in 2019) while fiction films dropped from 51 to 42 titles year on year.
  • The largest number of film releases originated from Europe (38.5%), ahead of the US (34.8%) and Sweden (17.2%).
  • Four Swedish films were in the Top 10: A Piece of My Heart, My Father Marianne, Jerry Maya’s Detective Agency-The Secret of the Train Robber and Sune, Best Man.
  • Run Uje Run was the critics’ favourite Swedish film and the UK documentary For Sama the top film of the year for reviewers.
  • The SFI was the largest contributor, in average feature film financing in 2020 (31.1%), ahead of film funds (19.5%), broadcasters (18.2%), producers’ own investments (11.3) and Swedish distributors (19.2%). VOD services accounted for 5.2%, and sales agents 1.7% of average film financing.
  • For documentaries, the SFI’s share in average financing was 40.9%, ahead of producers’ own investments (23.8%), TV stations (17.2%), and film funds (13.4%).
  • Women accounted for 64% of Swedish films in the directing and producing roles, and 57% of scripts approved by SFI commissioners.

For the full SFI report, check: www.sfi.se