Just over halfway into the 2021 festival, the Gothenburg Film Festival already had twice as large an audience as during the entire festival last year, according to CEO Mirja Wester:

- It is also very gratifying that the audience is located throughout Sweden and from many places where this kind of film from around the world would not have been available to see, even a year where the cinemas had been unaffected by a pandemic.

The Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm also expresses enthusiasm for success for on-demand viewing, with 190,250 screenings on Dramaten Play in 2020. Experience has paved the way for more initiatives digitally in 2021, such as the European Theater Festival in January, Lessingtage 21, with 30,000 views and 15,000 unique viewers:

- The European digital collaboration that was open to the whole world got viewers from 40 different countries - all the way from Korea, China, Japan and Azerbaijan.

In this way, we have reached completely new target groups, says press manager Lena Törner at Dramaten.

Dance band week

Very positive is also the head of the digital Dance Band Week, who after being forced to cancel in Malung this summer managed to turn disappointment into success with 159,565 unique visitors digitally in one week, from all over Sweden - and from Norway.

- From a purely financial point of view, there was no profit, but the brand was strengthened: we showed that we exist and strengthened our base, including 5,000 new followers on Facebook, says Lars Bälter, marketing and media manager at Swedish Dance Band Week.

If the infection situation allows, the dance band week will therefore run two parallel festivals in 2021, one physical and one digital with, for example, live broadcasts.

Forced to cancel

However, some obstacles even for digital investments have arisen from time to time.

Git Scheynius, director of the Stockholm Film Festival, was forced to cancel the international part of the program with only four days' notice in March 2020.

- The companies behind international blockbusters do not release their rights digitally to us - and it is the broadly popular films that draw in the most revenue, so without government grants it will be impossible to do festivals online.

But that our digital festival reached out with quality film from Pajala to Örkellunga was fantastic, says Git Scheynius.