As part of its on-going strategy to reach gender equality in film, the Swedish film Institute has introduced a new scheme to help female screenwriters work on films over SEK 30m (€2.7m).

The aim of the new scheme is to increase the number of big budget films written by women, and to respond to the overall lack of female voices in Swedish film.

The two-step scheme aimed at professional female screenwriters will run for an 18 month period until the fall 2020.

In the first phase, up to 10 applicants will be given SEK150,000 each to research and develop an idea and in the second phase, 4 to 6 selected screenwriters will be granted a fixed amount of SEK 200,000 in development support to draft a script, under expert guidance. They will also benefit from tailor-made workshops to build their skills and access to networking events.

The new SFI screenwriting scheme was set up following the latest gender equality report ‘The Money issue’ that stated that female screenwriters are attached to only 30% of Swedish films, and out of 8 bigger budget Swedish films in 2018, only one was written by a woman.

“We obviously have a lack of female voices and we need to change the numbers,” said Anna Serner, CEO at the SFI who hopes the initiative will spark female writers’ desire to make big budget films. The SFI female screenwriting scheme opens for applications June 4, 2019. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE (IN SWEDISH)