During the three day Polish-Swedish Film meetings, organized by the Swedish Film Institute (www.sfi.se) and ERA New Horizons IFF (www.enh.pl), film professionals had a chance to take part in Industry Screenings presenting the newest film productions from Sweden and discuss several Polish and Swedish cooperation projects currently in development.

"We decided to approach the ERA New Horizons IFF with the idea to present New Swedish Cinema because Poland was one of the countries that Swedish sales agents name as the markets most interested and open to Swedish cinema," Petter Mattsson from the Swedish Film Institute told FNE. "There is a big audience potential in the 40 million citizens of Poland and the New Swedish cinema as well as the Jan Troell retrospective is very promising," he added.

The presentation of the new Swedish productions was combined with the presentation of eight new projects in development including projects from both Swedish and Polish filmmakers. The Swedish film industry produces about 25 films a year, with a average budget of 35 million EUR.

"We are a very democratic society and there is a major focus on enhancing the local film industry by ensuring that 40% of each locally funded production is realized in Sweden." Mattsson said. "However this does not rule out international cooperation, especially with producers and filmmakers from Poland who manage to get some local funding from their government," he added. The recent focus on regional funding in Poland is similar to approaches used in Sweden, which can facilitate the cooperation of the two countries.

Several new Swedish titles became instant hits in the ERA fest program and will enter Polish distribution. "The Polish-Swedish Film meetings are an excellent place for marketing, as well as getting know the film professionals and the movies themselves better, which is usually not possible during the bigger film markets," Teresa Allden a sales agent from the Swedish Nonstop Sales (www.nonstopsales.com) told FNE. The King of Ping Pong directed Jens Jonsson, which we represented during this festival became one of the most popular titles, and we are in the middle of talks with Polish distributors. Lena Einhorn's Nina's Journey will probably be distributed in Poland as well, and we are arranging the sale of Darling directed by Johan Kling to one of the Polish television broadcasters," she added.