On Monday the Swedish government announced that from Wednesday, stricter measures will be introduced to try to curb Covid cases that have been creeping up after the New Year.

“It is without a doubt that the situation has worsened, and the spread of infection in Sweden is at historically high levels,” said Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at a press conference.

Anti-covid new measures include a cap of 500 people and vaccination certificates required if participants exceed 50 people at indoor public gatherings and events, one-meter distance between parties in cinemas and max 8 people per groups sitting together. Avoiding crowded environments, keeping social distances and working from home is also recommended.

Reacting to the Swedish government’s announcement, Jonas Holmgren, artistic director of Göteborg Film Festival, said the new measures won’t really affect Scandinavia’s largest film festival, which attracted over 160,000 visitors in pre-pandemic times. “The new restrictions were something we already had foreseen and planned for. As for now, we will proceed according to plan, and continue to monitor the situation day by day,” he said.

The Göteborg Film Festival is due to unfold both in person and online January 28 to February 6, and its major industry events TV Drama Vision (February 2-3) and Nordic Film Market (February 3-6) are also going ahead.

“We still plan for an in-person event, however with less people than the original plan,” told Head of Industry Cia Edström to nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “The film and TV industry are still very keen to attend, and we will have to balance that with planning for a safe event.”

Meanwhile as a result of the tighter Covid-restrictions, Nordisk Film Distribution immediately announced on Monday that its major release I am Zlatan by Jens Sjögren about Zlatan Ibrahimovic's childhood and rise to become a world football champion, set to open this Friday, has been once again postponed. The original release date was September 2021.

“We are very sorry to have to make this decision, but to give the film the opportunities to meet the audience it deserves, this is necessary. The interest in the film I am Zlatan is huge, and once it goes out in cinemas, it should be in front of a full hall”, said producer Fredrik Heinig of BR-F.

Quizzed about the possible effect of the new Covid-measures on cinemas, Peter Fornstam, head of the cinema association Sveriges Biografägareförbund and CEO of Sweden’s second biggest chain Svenska Bio commented: ‘It’s impossible to judge how this [new Covid measures] will affect us, but my guess is that the public will be slightly hesitant for a while, then we will see what movies get moved,” he said, underlying that the US horror pic Scream and animated Peter Rabbit 2-The Runaway are still slated for this Friday release.

In Denmark, cinemas have been closed since December 19 and are due to reopen January 16, if restrictions aren’t extended. In Finland, most cinemas have been closed since December 28 as a result of tight Covid restrictions and in Norway, a new cap of 50 people per screen introduced January 10 was described as 'unsustainable' to the industry' by the national cinema association Film & Kino in a letter sent to Culture Minister Anette Trettebergstuen.