06/04/2005

Competition in the Swedish exhibition market will live. The independent distribution company Triangel Film based in Malmö has just bought with local production outfit S/S Flanden Film and another distributor of art-house films Atlantic Film, Sandrew Metronome’s much coveted cinema chain in Sweden. The deal estimated at SEK 56 million gives Mattias Nohrborg, Head of Triangel Film and his partners, access to 22 cinemas and 89 screens in 15 cities across Sweden, and puts an end to the dream of the other main exhibitor SF Bio to control 95% of the Swedish cinema marketplace.

Just four months ago, that dream had come true when Sandrew Metronome had agreed to sell its Swedish cinema assets to its main competitor SF Bio. But the Swedish Competition Authority suspended the sale and let other bidders come forward. An opportunity seized last February by Mattias Nohrborg, who already owns three art house cinemas in Sweden: the Spegeln in Malmö, the Sture in Stockholm and the Rödakvarn in Helsingborg.
"It has been an intensive period of negotiations", commented Nohrborg, "but I’m really satisfied with the outcome. We can now concentrate on an exciting future with a continued competition in the cinema marketplace".
Nohrborg went on explaining his vision for his new cinema chain: "We shall build on the good foundations already in place with the cinemas and the personnel. I think that cinemas as a screening place for feature films have a future and that a wide audience still sees it as the best medium for watching films. We will now concentrate all our energy with the entire Swedish film industry to increase cinema admissions in Sweden".

One of the leading art-house distributors in Sweden, Triangel Film has always released since it started in 1988, quality films for the Swedish audience such as les Amants du pont neuf, Breaking the Waves, more recently Vera Drake [+see also:
trailer
film profile] or the upcoming titles Agata e la tempesta by the Italian Silvi Soldini (to be released on 29 April) or Notre musique by Jean-Luc Godard (to be released on 06 May). Triangel also co-produced Björn Runge’s award-winning film Daybreak.
Its distribution partner Atlantis Film headed by Johan Engwall is also a keen buyer of European films for the Swedish theatrical and DVD market. The company released Fatih Akin’s German hit Head On [+see also:
trailer
film profile] last December and just released the Dutch Oscar contender for a Best Foreign language film in 2005: Twin Sisters (De Tweeling).