Mimmi Spang and Anna Maria Kantarius

Source: Ida Lindkvist

Mimmi Spang and Anna Maria Kantarius

Need To Know: Mimmi Spang co-founded Sweden’s Garagefilm alongside Rebecka Lafrenz, Malte Forssell and Hakan Lindhé in 2007. Spang still runs the company, with Anna-Maria Kantarius joining as producer in 2010 (the company is 10% owned by Stockholm-based partnership Co-made). Its breakthrough moment came in 2010, when Babak Najafi’s Sebbe won the best first feature award at the Berlinale. Since then Garagefilm has worked in a mix of genres, with notable titles including Mikael Marcimain’s 1970s-set political scandal thriller Call Girl, Marten Klingberg’s hit comedy Cockpit, Lisa Aschan’s romantic comedy Call Mom!, Johannes Nyholm’s festival award-winner The Giant, and Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Rotterdam-winning trans­gender love story Something Must Break. As co-producers, the company has its first selections in Cannes this year with Hlynur Palmason’s Godland and Kristoffer Borgli’s Sick Of Myself. Garagefilm is also expanding into TV series.

Key personnel: Mimmi Spang, producer; Anna-Maria Kantarius, producer.

Incoming: Outside of Cannes co-productions Godland and Sick Of Myself, currently in production is comedy drama The Hypnosis, the feature debut of Swedish director Ernst De Geer, about a couple whose lives are turned upside down after she undergoes hypnosis and loses her social inhibitions.

Anna-Maria Kantarius says: “We focus on finding and investing in long-term relations with directors and scriptwriters. We strongly believe in diversity in front of and behind the camera. In Sweden, a new generation of film workers are growing up, demanding more sustainable working conditions, and we see more and more directors and scriptwriters from diverse backgrounds, offering much-needed new perspectives.” 

Contact: info@garagefilm.se