The upcoming Swedish ‘Bioklubb’ will kick start in the fall, thanks to a ground-breaking joint industry initiative and SEK 4.7 million support from the Swedish Film Institute.

The successful Danish Biografklub which generates around 2 million cinema ticket sales (pre-pandemic) a year from its 200,000 club members, has long been in discussions in Sweden. Now in a decisive sign of cohesion in the local film industry, Sweden will finally have its own cinema club, very much identical in structure and concept to the original Danish version, launched nearly three decades ago.

Starting in the fall, Swedish film lovers and ‘bioklubb’ subscribers will be able to watch 10 hand-picked films a year for half the average ticket price, at any participating Swedish cinema. The films selected by an industry programme committee will be a mix of high-quality international films, plus a minimum of two Swedish films a year.

Initiated by Nordisk Film, SF Studios, the local cinema chain Svenska Bio and AMC-owned ‘Filmstaden’ circuit, the Swedish cinema club will be run as an independent company, co-owned by the Swedish Cinema Owners Association (Sveriges Biografägare Förbund, aka SBF) and the Swedish Film Rental Association (Sveriges Filmuthyrareförening).

Board members will also include smaller cinema chains and niche-oriented distributors.

So far around 95% of cinemas are backing ‘Bioklubb’ according to Peter Fornstam, owner of Svenska Bio and head of SBF.

Fornstam said he and Nordisk Film country manager Anders Melin, initiated the project. “April last year, when Covid hit, I had a conversation with Anders Melin who brought [the cinema club] up. The conversation ended with-let’s use this downtime and go to work on getting this off the ground!” he told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

Melin added: “I’m very happy that we managed to unite the industry around ‘Bioklubb’, the most important initiative in Sweden for many years, creating a great consumer offer that has been a well-known success in Denmark for many years. And yes”, he continues, “the timing was unique considering Covid-19 and the history for local films among other movies, sometimes having a hard time reaching their audience. We had the momentum to gather the industry and make it happen.”

Pia Grünler, Nordic Head of Theatrical at SF Studios also said: “I am truly happy that after all these years, we were able to gather all parties in the Swedish film industry around this project. I think it will have a big impact on our possibility to reach out to the cinema audience and I’m glad we can send them a strong message to gather people around the cinema experience.”

Speaking as well to nordicfilmandtvnews.com Anna Serner, head of the Swedish Film Institute confirmed that the institute is investing SEK 4.7 million (around €450,000) into the project. “I am confident that this is a very good way of getting the audience back, helping them (target group being grown-up women) to find the films they want. And hopefully, it will inspire filmmakers to do really good films. That said, we are still in a pandemic, so no one can be certain. But I am very happy that all parts of the industry have collaborated around this, and I am confident it will work well,” she said.

Commenting on the Swedish initiative, Lykke Lind Thomsen, managing director of the Danish cinema club (Biografklub Danmark) said: “We are happy for the Swedish industry to be starting a cinema club for the Swedish cinema guests. We have shared our experience and knowledge from our 27-year-old cinema club with the stakeholders from the Swedish film industry and we wish them the best of luck with their opening campaign and hope a large audience will join their club.”

Meanwhile Biografklub Danmark has just released its own curated programme for 2021-2022.

Among the 10 selected titles are six Danish films.

Biografklubb Danmark’s 2021-22 titles and release dates are the following:
1/ Margrete-Queen of the North by Charlotte Sieling (SF Studios-16.09.21)
2/ Shadows in My Eyes by Ole Bornedal (SF Studios-28.10.21)
3/ House of Gucci by Ridley Scott (SF Studios-02.12.21)
4/ Downton Abbey 2 by Simon Curtis (UIP-20.01.22)
5/ Rose by Niels Arden Oplev (Nordisk Film-24.02.22)
6/ Touch Me by Lars Kaalund (Scanbox 24.03.22)
7/ Into the Darkness-The Final Reckoning by Anders Refn (Scanbox-21.04.22)
8/ Belfast by Kenneth Branagh (UIP-19.04.22)
9/ The Worst Person in the World (Camera Film-16.07.22)
10/ For Life by Frelle Petersen (Nordisk Film-07.07.22).