Booking School Cinema

About the Swedish Film Institute and School Cinema

As part of its Film in Schools initiative, the Swedish Film Institute produces film study guides, which serve as a recommendation as to which films are considered to be of interest to show at schools. Film in Schools can also provide support with repertoire advice and so on, but each school or municipality organises its own screenings. You can e-mail Film in Schools if you are uncertain whether or not your municipality has School Cinema. If you are a teacher wishing to organise a screening, read more below.

Film is a dynamic phenomenon

Just because a film is released in Sweden (at the cinema, on DVD, television or some other medium), this does unfortunately not mean it will be available for all future time. The film companies keep the film in distribution only as long as it is topical and there is an interest in it. This means that not necessarily all films that have a film study guide are available (although, for study purposes, we believe it's a good idea to keep all film study guides visible). The title is often available on DVD from one of the distribution companies, but even there it may no longer be available.

What are the rules for screening film in schools?

If you wish to screen a film on DVD at a school, recreation centre, church, club or similar, you must buy or rent the film with institutional rights. You can also hire or buy films from companies that distribute film with institutional rights. These companies offer different kinds of agreements, and the cost varies depending on the type of agreement.

Some schools have access to a selection of different films via an AV/Media Centre that can also provide programmes from UR (the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company). Find out more on the UR website.

A wide range of fiction and documentary films can be found with Swedish Film and FilmCentrum. Short films and educational films can be found with distributors such as Kunskapsmedia.

When it comes to TV programmes, the organisation Copyswede offers various types of agreement for anyone wishing to use certain radio and television programmes in their teaching.

Film companies with cinema distribution

If you would like to book a film to screen at a cinema, you can contact the following companies. You can find the original distributor for each film by searching on the title on the Swedish Film Database.