Support for the production of audiovisual works

Companies whose main activity is the production of audiovisual works can apply for support. Both national and international companies can apply. Private individuals cannot apply.

The company that applies must either have production responsibility for the entire production, for example responsibility for planning, principal photography, post-production, final product and budget and employer responsibility, or have the right to represent the company with production responsibility by power of attorney.

What can I apply for?

The support can be used for feature films, documentary films, drama series or documentary series, regardless of the technology used to bring them to the screen. For costs to be eligible, they must be incurred by you, the recipient of support.

Eligible costs

Eligible costs are costs for salaries, goods and services that are necessary to carry out the production in Sweden and that relate to pre-production, production and post-production.

Pre-production includes costs for development and preparation for filming, such as casting and location scouting. Support cannot be provided for costs incurred before the application is submitted to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth or for underlying rights.

Production includes the costs of filming and animating, such as actors, catering, travel, accommodation, hiring film crews, car hire, studio hire and stunts.

Post-production includes costs incurred after the raw material for a film is shot until the final delivery of the film or series, such as editing, visual effects, music, sound effects and laboratory work.

Support may also go to costs associated with making the production accessible to people with disabilities.

The eligible costs of a production must

• amount to at least 4 million Swedish kronor and
• be necessary to carrying out the production in Sweden and
• relate to purchases of goods and services from businesses that pay tax in Sweden or salaries of employees taxed in Sweden.

Eligible costs must be accounted for separately from other production costs, and must have been incurred by you as the beneficiary. In the application for payment, it must be clearly shown that the costs relate to the production that has been granted support. You can read more in the section Apply for payment and report in the handbook.

What counts as eligible salaries, goods and services?

• Eligible purchases of goods include, for example: purchases of equipment, supplies or petrol.
• Eligible purchases of services are, for example: fees for actors or other hired staff, accommodation, catering, transport, rental of premises/locations, rental of equipment, post-production (e.g. editing, VFX, grading), legal and accountancy fees.
  All rentals count as a purchase of service.
• Eligible salaries are salaries to workers who pay tax in Sweden, who are employed by the company applying for support, and which relate to time for the part of the production carried out in Sweden.

The following costs are not eligible for support

Support cannot be granted for costs arising prior to the application being submitted to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.

Support cannot be granted for costs relating to underlying rights, distribution or marketing.

The following are examples of non-eligible costs:

• Interest payments
• Fines, sanction fees and court costs
• Costs for registration of title or title deed costs
• Floating charges
• Advertising or marketing costs
• Entertainment and representation expenses
• Operational costs not related to the production (for example administration or the lease of the company’s regular offices or production facilities).
• Investments in film infrastructure, such as studios or other permanent structures that may be reused for other productions.
• Depreciation costs

• VAT

Read more in the handbook under Requirements, conditions and governing documents, where you can find FAQs concerning specific cost items.

How much can I apply for?

The support amounts to 25 percent of the eligible costs.

You receive the money by making an application for payment after the costs have been incurred.

Other public support

We have to take into account the total level of public support from Swedish support providers and may need to adjust the level of support if the total Swedish support exceeds 50 percent of the production's total budget. Swedish public support is money provided by Swedish donors and financed from public funds. An example of another Swedish support provider is the Swedish Film Institute.

If you are unsure whether certain funding constitutes public support, ask the financier in question for clarification.

For more information on the maximum level of public support, see the Commission Regulation (EU) 651/2014 of June 17th, 2014 (GBER).

• Commission Regulation (EU) 651/2014 of June 17th, 2014 (GBER) External link.

How long can the project last?

The deadline for applying for payment is September 30th 2027, for productions granted support in 2024.

How do I apply?

Applications must be made via the tool Min ansökan. Applications received in other ways than via Min ansökan will be rejected.

There you will also find information about how to create an account and other functions such as sharing applications with other users. We recommend using Chrome when working in “Min ansökan”. You can download Chrome here. External link.Other browsers may work, but we cannot guarantee that all the features of “Min ansökan” will work properly.

An application consists of

• an application form containing questions about your production, and
• the documents you need to attach, see Attachments below

You can see the application form in its entirety in the Handbook for Audiovisual Works under “Application form and templats”.

The call for proposals opens on March 19th 2024 at 10:00 CET.

The call for proposals closes when we estimate that the budget of 50 million Swedish kronor is covered, but no earlier than March 20th 2024 at 10:00 CET.

• Min ansökan External link.
• Application form

How can I prepare for my application?

Read the handbook and prepare your documentation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at avi@tillvaxtverket.se

• Handbook Support for the production of audiovisual works

What are the requirements?

For a production to be eligible for support, the following requirements must be met:

• The production of audiovisual works must be the company’s main activity

The company that applies must either have production responsibility for the entire production, for example responsibility for planning, principal photography, post-production, final product and budget and employer responsibility, or have the right to represent the company with production responsibility by power of attorney. Both national and international companies can apply. Private individuals cannot apply.

• The production must take place entirely or in part in Sweden

The production must be carried out entirely or in part in Sweden to be eligible for support. Support can go to costs relating to pre-production, production and post-production, provided that they are carried out in Sweden. Support can also go to a limited part of the production, such as a particular part of post-production, if it is carried out in Sweden.

• Principal photography must not have started before the application for support is submitted

Principal photography must not have started before the application for support is submitted. If the principal photography has started before the application for support is submitted, the production is not eligible for support. This also applies if support is only applied for later parts of the production. Please note that costs incurred before the start of filming may be eligible. For example, costs related to pre-production.

• The total budget of the production must be at least 30 million Swedish kronor for feature films, at least 10 million Swedish kronor for documentary films, at least 10 million Swedish kronor per episode for drama series or at least 5 million Swedish kronor per episode for documentary series

The total budget for the entire production includes all costs (including non-eligible costs) that the production company has for the production. From early development, pre-production, recording, post-production to delivery.

• Production costs that are eligible for support must be at least 4 million Swedish kronor

Eligible costs are costs for salaries, goods and services that are necessary to carry out the production in Sweden and that relate to pre-production, production and post-production.

Pre-production includes costs for development and preparation for filming, such as casting and location scouting. Support cannot be provided for costs incurred before the application is submitted to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth or for underlying rights.

Production includes the costs of filming and animating, such as actors, catering, travel, accommodation, hiring film crews, car hire, studio hire and stunts.

Post-production includes costs incurred after the raw material for a film is shot until the final delivery of the film or series, such as editing, visual effects, music, sound effects and laboratory work.

Support may also go to costs associated with making the production accessible to people with disabilities.

• The financing of the production must be secured for the part for which you are not applying support

This means that you must be able to certify in your application that all other funding for the production has been secured and be able to confirm your certification, for example through an agreement or letter of commitment (LOC).

• The production must be classed as a cultural product according to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth’s definition.

Support for the production of audiovisual works may only be granted to a film or television series that constitutes a cultural product. A cultural product is a film or television series that dramatizes or stages a story, whether real or fictional, regardless of the genre or the technique used to produce it.

A documentary film or documentary series dealing with a specific subject, person or event, regardless of the genre or the technique used to produce it, is also considered a cultural product.

The following types of works are not considered cultural products, as defined by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth:

• Advertising film
• Reality series
• Talk show
• Music video
• Sports or news programme
• Game show
• Instructional film
• Recording of theatrical performance
• Pornographic film

Read more in the handbook under Requirements, conditions and governing documents

Attachments

In order to process your application, the following documents must be attached to the application:

• Itemised budget for the entire production, for excample from Movie Magic Budgeting, saved as a PDF or Excel file. The itemised budget must show:

• cost items and amounts in Swedish kronor
• eligible costs broken down into goods, services and salaries, for example by colour coding and separate summarising
• the country to which a cost relates if cost items or parts of cost items relate to production abroad

• A financing plan of the production and contracts, decisions or letter of commitments (LOC)* that confirm all the financing items and is consistent with the financing plan.
• Power of attorney, if you are applying on behalf of another company.
• Description of the production (according to template).

The documents are attached in the application form.

• Read more about the mandatory attachments in the handbook under Application form and templates

* A letter of commitment must show:

• the identities of the parties (name and personal identity number/company registration number);
• details of the scope of financing and the period of validity; and
• signatures and date.

Supplementation

Supplements are made according to the service and investigation obligation in sections 20 and 23 of the Administrative Procedure Act (2017:900), which means that applicants must be given the opportunity to supplement incomplete information in the application. For example, we may need to ask for clarifications or additional information to the submitted application.

• Administrative Procedure Act (2017:900) in Swedish External link.

Signing the application and signature documentation

When you submit the application, it must be signed by an authorised signatory. If the person who filled in the application is an authorised signatory and has logged in to My Application with BankID, you can also sign the application with BankID when it is submitted.

If the person handling the application is not an authorised signatory, submit the application as usual, either with BankID or without BankID. After submitting the application, you must supplement it with a signature form. The signature form will be available after you have submitted the application.

• Read more about signature documentation in the handbook under Apply

General terms and conditions

The requirements that apply to all granted applications are regulated in the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth’s General terms and conditions for support for the production of audiovisual works. The General terms and conditions contain rules concerning the implementation of the project, what applies in the event of changes in the production, which costs are eligible, rules regarding payment and obligations to participate in reporting, auditing and follow-up work.

There are also provisions on the possible repayment of support. Among other things, a breach of the General terms and conditions may lead to a decision to cancel support, either completely or in part.

• The General terms and conditions can be found among our govering documents

Confidentiality

Applications received by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth are processed in a secure manner and can only be read by administrators with special authorisation.

Applications received by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth are public documents. Everyone has the right to access public documents unless they are protected by confidentiality. We always carry out a confidentiality review before releasing a document. Confidentiality applies to information concerning business or operating conditions if it can be assumed that the individual or company will suffer harm if the information is disclosed. This may include, for example, information about the content of production or financial information.

Processing of personal data

The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth processes personal data in order to manage the support for the production of audiovisual works. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth is the personal data controller for the processing. We process personal data about applicants and persons named in the application who participate in the production. We save and process the following personal data: name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and any other personal data sent in the application. For statistical purposes, we process information on the legal gender of the company's CEO.

We process personal data in order to process, assess and administer applications for support. Personal data is also used for statistical purposes, as well as for monitoring, evaluation and analysis, and finally for archiving purposes. If funding is granted, personal data may be published on websites or in other electronic collections.

Our legal basis for processing personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest.

Personal data in public documents are stored in accordance with the applicable archiving rules.

• This is how we process personal data

How is my application processed and decided?

When you submit the application, it is given a time stamp. Applications are processed in the order in which they are received by The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. This is regulated in the regulation governing the aid. If you want to know your queue position, you can email avi@tillvaxtverket.se after you have submitted your application.

The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth first assesses whether the application meets the requirements for receiving support. The application must contain the information the agency needs to assess the application, otherwise it may be rejected.

The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth does not make a qualitative assessment of the content of a production.

The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth will decide to either grant or refuse the application. The normal processing time is four to six weeks.

Granting an application

An application may be granted when it fulfils the requirements for support and there is sufficient budget space.

An application may be partly granted if, for example, certain costs are not eligible for support and have therefore been stricken from the application.

An approval decision will specify the maximum amount of support. Support will be granted subject to budget constraints and all approval decisions will be announced at the same time.

When the production is granted support, you must, within 14 days of receiving the decision on support, sign the form "Confirmation of commitments" and send it to The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. Read more under Confirmation of commitments LINK

Refusing an application

An application may be refused if it fails to meet the requirements for receiving support or when the budget for support is exhausted.

Rejecting an application

An application may be rejected if it fails to fulfil the formal requirements, such as if:

• the application was not submitted via the tool Min ansökan;
• the application was not received by the deadline;
• the applicant is not qualified; or
• the application is so flawed that it is not fit as the basis for a decision.

Appeals

Rejection and refusal decisions may be appealed to the administrative court of appeal, according to the Section 40 of the Swedish Administrative Procedure Act (SFS 2017:900).