The much-awaited 25% Swedish production rebate greenlit by the Swedish Parliament in December, is finally up and running, placing Sweden in line with Finland, Iceland and Norway as attractive Nordic filming nations.

The scheme administered by Tillväxtverket (Swedish Agency for Economic Growth) on behalf of the Swedish government, has an annual budget of SEK100m (approximately €9.2m), although the industry had originally lobbied for SEK300m (€27.5m).

The 25% production rebate is open to audiovisual works (feature films, documentaries, drama series and docu series) with production costs incurred locally above SEK4m (€368,000). To be eligible, productions must take place fully or partly in Sweden, budgets for the projects must be of a minimum SEK30m (€2.7m) for a feature project, SEK10m (€920,000) for a documentary, SEK10m per episode for a drama series, and SEK5m (€460,000) per episode for a docu series. Support is allocated on a first-come first-served basis and to a maximum of 25% of eligible costs.

“The new production incentives – born in an industry policy context-is a positive complement to the cultural policy-motivated selective film supports that the Swedish Film Institute administrates,” commented Anette Novak, CEO at the SFI." The aim is that Swedish productions to a higher extent will chose to shoot in Sweden, and to attract international productions here in a bid to stimulate regional development and the employment market.”

On November 7, opening day of the first round of support, Tillväxtverket received 37 applications worth over SEK300m (€27.5m) and already November 8, the Agency decided to close its support for 2022, estimating that their SEK100m envelop would already run out.

“This is a clear indication that the level of the incentives-approximately a third of the EU average-is largely insufficient,” Novak told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

Tim King, Executive VP Production at SF Studios welcomed the new incentive, but held similar nuanced views: “In order to make a meaningful impact, producers need to be able to plan around financing and thus until the pot increases to at least the SEK 300m recommended in the initial study by Tillväxtverket, the impact of the incentive will be somewhat limited,” he said.

Tillväxtverket which is still to announce the projects supported, said the next round of applications is due to open in the spring 2023.

Meanwhile three of Sweden’s regional film funds Film i Väst, Film i Skåne and Film Stockholm whose co-production support can be combined with the new incentives, were all enthusiastic and hopeful about the new opportunities to boost their local audiovisual activities and economy.

“Finally Sweden has introduced the same kind of production incentive system as the rest of Europe,” said Mikael Fellenius, CEO of Film I Väst, underlining that the SEK 100m is almost on par Film i Väst’s own annual investment budget.

Film i Väst which has co-produced more than 1,300 productions since its inception 30 years ago (including Triangle of Sadness, Holy Spider, Boy from Heaven), offers a wide range of post-production and filming facilities such as Studio Fares Trollhättan - second largest sound-stage in Scandinavia, and its new virtual production wall (24x8meter), to be launched January 31st, 2023.

Kristina Colliander, CEO at Film Stockholm said: “I hope the rebates will enable more Swedish productions to shoot here for more and longer than today, and of course attract more international productions as well. Stockholm has a fantastic variety of shooting environments, the greatest talents and practical possibilities to consolidate your production.”

Among recent Swedish projects co-produced by Film Stockholm are Björn Runge’s Burn All My Letters (SF Studios) and Mika Gustafsson’s upcoming film Sisters (Hobab).

Mikael Svensson, Head of Film i Skåne’s Southern Sweden Film Commission, hailed the new production incentives that have “put Sweden on the international incentive map”.

Recent projects shot in the region and co-produced by Film i Skåne include Viaplay’s series End of Summer based on Swedish crime novelist Anders de la Motte’s book. The psycho-thriller directed by Jens Jonsson (Young Wallander) and Henrik Georgsson (The Bridge) is produced by Harmonica Films in co-production with SF Studios.

For further information about the new Swedish production rebate, check: www.tillvaxtverket.se