1992 – The county council of Älvsborg funds Film i Väst under the name Västernfilm, with its headquarters in Alingsås.
1993 – Västernfilm changes name to Film i Väst and presents an official proposal for a west Sweden film fund.
1994 – The west Sweden film fund is established.
1995 – Film i Väst is awarded a Guldbagge for its inspiring work.
1996 – Film i Väst moves to Trollhättan.
1997 – Love Fools and The Lake become the first two feature film co-productions to shoot in the region.
1998 – Lukas Moodysson’s debut feature Show Me Love is released, and proceeds to sell 867,576 admission tickets in Sweden, making it the most attended Swedish film ever visited by movie goers in Sweden at the time.
1999 – Eleven feature films are shot in Västra Götaland, among them Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark starring Björk and Catherine Deneuve. Show Me Love captures two Awards in Berlin, as well as prizes at Karlovy Vary and Rotterdam, and gets US Distribution.
2000 – Colin Nutley’s Under the Sun is nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark wins the Palme d'or and Best Actress prize at Cannes, Ella Lemhagen’s Tstatsiki, morsan och polisen attracts 400,000 admissions and goes on to win the Crystal Bear and Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix prizes at Berlin, and four Guldbagges.
Lukas Moodysson’s Together premiers in Venice, is nominated European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards, Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards and draws a local audience of over 850,000 in Sweden, with 187,000 in the US and 400,000 in Italy.
2001 – Film i Väst co-produces fifteen features in one year. Dancer in the Dark is nominated Best Music, Original Song at the 73rd Academy Awards and surpasses one million admissions in France, 785,000 in the US, and 400,000 in Spain.
Anders Nilsson’s Livvakterna attracts 480,000 admissions. Jalla! Jalla! by Josef Fares screens at the Berlinale, and goes on to attract 790,000 admissions domestically. It is also nominated for the European Discovery of the Year.
2002 – Film i Väst celebrates its 10th Anniversay by attracting Lars von Trier and Nicole Kidman to Trollhättan to shoot Dogville. It also hosts Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All about Love, which later premiers at Sundance.
Lukas Moodysson’s Lilya 4-Ever premieres in Venice and receives nominations for two European Film Awards and the Independent Spirit Best Foreign Film award.
2003 – Dogville competes for the Palme d’or in Cannes and wins Best Director and Best Cinematographer at the European Film Awards. Lilya 4-Ever wins five Guldbagges. Josef Farres’ Kopps is the top Swedish film at the box-office and wins Best Film from Europe at the Montreal World Film Festival. Daniel Lind Lagerlöf’s Miffo, Ulf Malmros’ Slim Susie and Björn Runge’s Daybreak are also huge local box-office successes.
2004 – Film i Väst inaugurates its new studio in Trollhättan, Studio Fares, with the largest sound stage in Scandiavia. Fares’ Zozo is the first production to shoot there. Daybreak receives US Distribution and wins four Guldbagges, in addition to two awards at the Berlinale and a Golden Bear nomination. Maria Blom’s Masjävlar is the top Swedish film of the year, with 785,716 admissions. Lars von Trier returns to Trollhättan to film Manderlay.
2005 – Manderlay screens in competition at Cannes, before going on to Karlovy Vary, Toronto and Cairo. Zozo also screens in Toronto and Cairo. Masjävlar wins three Guldbagges.
2006 – Arn: The Knight Templar begins production in Västra Götaland. Jesper Ganslandt’s Falkenberg Farewell premiers at Venice and becomes Sweden’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
2007 – Anders Nilsson’s When Darkness Falls wins the Amnesty International Award at the Berlinale. Johan Brisinger’s Suddenly wins the Audience Award at the Guldbagges. Arn tops 1,000,000 admissions at the domestic box-office, only the second Swedish film to do so.
2008 – Film i Väst establishes a new animation study. Manni Maserat-Agah’s Ciao Bella and Simon Staho’s Heaven’s Heart screen at the Berlinale. Ella Lemhagen’s Patrik 1.5 premieres at Toronto and attracts 330,000 admissions in Sweden. Lance Daly’s Kisses screens at Locarno and Toronto, and is sold to Focus Features. It also receives a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit awards and wins two Irish Film and Television Awards.
Ruben Östlund’s Involuntary is selected to screen in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and becomes Sweden’s official entry to the Academy Awards.
2009 – Film i Väst was involved as co-producer in four of the six most commercially successful films of the year, including Stieg Larsson's the Millenium trilogy and Staffan Lindberg’s comedy Summer with Goran. Swedish films accounted for more than 30% of the Swedish box-office admissions.
Lisa Siwe's Glowing Stars, Fredrik Edfeldt’s The Girl, Henrik Hellström’s Burrowing and Lukas Moodysson’s English language debut, Mammoth, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, all premiered at the Berlinale, the latter in competition for the Golden Bear. Two other Film i Väst co-productions accompanied Mammoth in official competition at the Berlinale; Little Soldier by Annette K Olesen was awarded the Ecumenical Prize of the Jury, and Hans-Christian Scmid’s political drama Storm captured several awards including the Reader Jury of the “Berliner Morgenpost” prize, the Amnesty International Film Prize and the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas.
In Cannes, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist is the first Film i Väst co-production since 2005 to be nominated for the Palme d’or. Charlotte Gainsbourg won the Best Actress award in Cannes for her role in this film and Anthony Dod Mantle won Best Cinematographer at the European Film Awards.
Kamen Kalev’s Eastern Plays screened in the Director’s Fortnight and went on to win the grand prizes at Tokyo and Warsaw.
2010 – Daniel Espinosa’s Easy Money dominated the box-office early in the year, outselling every film except Avatar. It screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, was sold to the Weinstein’s for US distribution and also sold remake rights. Josef Fares’s comedy, Farsan, was another huge success becoming one of the top six films at the Swedish box-office for the year.
Film i Väst's co-productions dominated the Guldbagge awards for the previous year (2009). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo captured two Guldbagges. Glowing Stars and The Wedding Photographer by Ulf Malmros had solid box office performances and won two Guldbagges apiece. In all, Film i Väst co-productions captured ten Guldbagges and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo also picked up the Audience Award.
Film i Väst had three co-productions premiere in competition at the Berlinale, including Pernilla Fischer Christensen’s A Family, Florin Serban’s If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle and Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me, while Ruben Östlund’s short film, Incident by a Bank, won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film. A Family received the FIPRESCI Prize and Serban’s film earned the Jury Grand Prix- Silver Bear and Alfred Bauer Prize for broadening cinematic horizons. Babak Najafi’s Sebbe rounded-off the Film i Väst award winners at Berlin by capturing the Best First Feature Award.
The Killer Inside Me was one of three Film i Väst co-productions to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, accompanied by the Estonian film The Temptation of St Tony, directed by Veiko Ounpuu and Mads Brügger’s Danish Documentary, The Red Chapel, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentaries.
At Cannes, Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson’s Sound of Noise screened in Semaine de la Critique, winning the Youth Jury Award. Daniel Joseph Borgman’s Berik picked up the Grand Prix Canal+ for best short film in the Semaine de la Critique section.
2011 - Susanne Bier’s In a Better World, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and also won a Golden Globe for the Best Foreign Language Film (both were awards for the previous year, 2010). Three other Film i Väst co-productions were national entries to the 83rd Academy Awards, including The Temptation of St.Tony, If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle and Eastern Plays.
Sebbe captured a Guldbagge for the Best Swedish Film in 2010. Easy Money by Daniel Espinosa won three Guldbagges and Till det som är vackert by Lisa Langseth won two Guldbagges. In all, Film i Väst co-productions captured eight Guldbagge’s out of eleven possible nominations, and Colin Nutley’s Änglagård - tredje gången gillt took home the Audience Award.
Film i Väst’s 2011 slate is already lined up with an impressive number of co-productions:
• Perfect Sense by David MacKenzie, starring Ewen McGregor, Eva Green, Connie Nielsen and Ewen Bremner.
• Melancholia by Lars von Trier, starring Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård and John Hurt.
• The Island by Kamen Kalev starring Thure Lindhart and Laetitia Casta.
• Loverboy by Catalin Mitulescu, starring George Pistereanu
• The Magnificent Eleven, by Irvine Welsh, starring Sean Bean, Robert Vaughn and Dougray Scott.
• Hideaways, by Agnes Merlet, starring Rachel Hurd Wood, Harry Treadaway and Thomas Sangster.
• Simon and the Oaks by Lisa Ohlin, starring Bill Skarsgård.
• Åsa-Nisse – Wälkom to Knohult, by Fredrik Boklund, starring Kjell Bergqvist.
Film i Väst’s 2011 co-productions include partners from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Norway and the USA.
