Several of the film inquiry's proposals, such as the establishment of a state film fund and a proposed streaming fee, the so-called "Netflix tax", are not included in the new bill.
The justification for this is that they don't want more taxes and fees, which is a bit silly. There are such things in many other places in Europe, and Tidögruppen knows that, says Jakob Abrahamsson, CEO of the distribution company Nonstop Entertainment.
"Nothing"
Other planned measures, such as a reduced cultural VAT and measures against illegal IPTV, are being sent for reinvestigation.
This pretty much came to nothing. But you can always hide by presenting this in the middle of summer during an election year. Maybe that was the whole point - you didn't want to say anything.
Eva Hamilton also thinks it is remarkable that the government has chosen to remove several of the serious proposals that were in the film investigation.
"They've had a year since the investigation and then they just choose to postpone everything that's important. Right now there's not a single new kroner for Swedish film production," she says.
The bottom layer
The watered-down new film policy is not just the failure of the Ministry of Culture, according to Hamilton:
The responsibility lies largely with the Ministry of Finance, which has been extremely reluctant to change Swedish film policy, despite the fact that Sweden is now at the bottom of Europe, she says.
The Swedish Film Institute's CEO Anna Croneman sees the bill as a "betrayal" of filmmakers and the audience.
"Swedish film has had a pretty tough time for several years and we have worked incredibly hard to get everything right. Now we are ready to take on a new film policy - and then practically nothing happened," she says.
What do you hope for in the future?
It's hard to be hopeful now. I felt hopeful when I read the film investigation because it found a financing model where we wouldn't just rely on the state. But maybe a new government will see this differently and think that the film is an important issue.
Former Minister of Culture Amanda Lind (MP) calls the new film policy "a disaster":
"What Swedish film needs instead is a package that really strengthens the film, with initiatives such as reduced cinema VAT, a streaming tax and a stably financed film fund. These are proposals that Filmsverige is asking for, which would really make a difference," she writes to TT.
