Simon Perry joins Sweden's Film i Vast

Perry - former head of British Screen Finance and, more recently, the Irish Film Board from 2006-11 – has signed a two-year contract with the centre and started in his new job this week.

He replaces Swedish producer Jessica Ask, who left to join independent production company Anagram Film & TV.

“We are happy to welcoming Perry to Film i Väst, and look forward to a collaboration with one of the world’s most experienced co-producers on the international scene,” said CEO Tomas Eskildsson.

Film i Vast operates on an annual budget of $11.5m (SEK 93m).

Perry, a film journalist, independent filmmaker and producer with his own Umbrella Films, was head of state-financed development and production company British Screen Finance (later known as the UK Film Coucil) from 1991.

Since 2000 he has concentrated on teaching at Germany’s International Filmschule Köln and at Ateliers du Cinéma Européen in Paris, where he is currently president.

During his tenure, British Screen Finance was involved in such films as Irish director Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game (1992), UK directors Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992), Mike Leigh’s Naked (1993), Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom (1995), Peter Howitt’s Sliding Doors (1998), Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain (1994), Dutch director Marleen Gorris’ Antonia’s Line (1995), Yugoslavian director Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land (2001) and Kenyan director Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham (2002).

Owned by the Västra Götaland region, Film i Väst is the largest film centre in Sweden and number two public funder after the Swedish Film Institute. It co-produces or co-finances between 30-40 Swedish or international features every year, adding shorts, documentaries and TV drama.

Investing up to 100% of the production costs allocated to western Sweden, it has co-produced more than 400 feature films. Recent productions have received 30 nominations for this year’s Guldbagge, the Swedish national film prize, and 41 for the Robert, awarded by the Danish Film Academy.

Among the contenders for the two prizes are Swedish directors Mikael Marcimain’s Gentlemen and Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure/Turist, Sweden’s Golden Globe nominee and Oscar candidate, and Danish directors Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Directors Cut, and Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Absent One (Fasandræberne).