Filmpool Stockholm-Mälardalen, a new regional film centre in the Swedish capital, has received $1m (Euro 755,000) in funding from the European Union’s regional developmentfund. The money aims to improve the competitiveness of the local industry.

The production hub, the country’s fourth regional centre, will include a fund to finance major film projects, a development fund for shorts and documentaries, also backing talent, research, education and international ventures, and a film commission to support productions in the area and market the region to foreign producers.

Anders Ekegren, head of Filmpool Stockholm-Mälardalen, said: ‘Today 90% of all Swedish actors and film companies are located in the Stockholm-Mälardalen area, but only 10% of the films are made here. We want to change that.’

Its film fund, Filminvestering i Örebro AB, has already supported a number of projects, including Lena Koppel’s Rallybrudar, three films from Scandanavian product company Yellow Bird, a six-part television series from Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, and three documentaries.

The centre’s film incubator, which launched on March 1 but has yet to be named, will support producers and projects and participate in two to three movies every year. Its immediate plans cover a low-budget production shooting this summer, another to start during the autumn, and a high-profile project scheduled for 2010.

The Stockholm Film Commission, under commissioner Ingrid Rudefors, is also working with Filmpool Stockholm-Mälardalen, and the pair are expected to co-finance ten Swedish features, adding shorts and documentaries, in 2010.

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