The new venture won’t be a fully-fledged distribution outfit for major productions - such as Östlund’s own films that will continue to be released via major distributors - but a tailor-made screening vehicle for handpicked arthouse films and documentaries, needing extra care.

The move will be a natural expansion for Plattform, known for experimenting with cinematic narratives and audiences’ own experience with film. “We put so much effort into making a film, it makes sense putting a similar effort into distributing a film,” says Erik Hemmendorff, producer and co-founder of Platfform Produktion.   “In Finland and Norway, a few production companies are self-distributing their films. Our approach with our films will be more as a way to exhibit them, like an art form, and to create a unique experience for the cinema audience,” adds Hemmendorff who hopes to tie partnerships with independent cinemas. For him, the entire cinema space itself could be used to reconquer the arthouse cinema audience and engage with them in an innovative way.

The first Platfform Distribution release will be John Skoog’s Ridge (Säsong), winner of the Sven Nykvist Cinematography award in Göteborg. The film produced by Plattform through the Swedish Film Institute’s Moving Sweden scheme, is set to open on May 3rd in selected Swedish cinemas, ahead of its television premiere on SVT.

For Hemmendorff, Skoog is the ideal filmmaker to kick start the ‘Plattform Presents’ screening event, as a fully-fledged artist interested in topography and cultural symbolism. “John has made a filmic and photographic work about the golden age of cinema [Shadowland]. With the release of Ridge, we will create an event where the screening itself will be staged,” says Hemmendorff.

The hybrid film shot by Ita Zbroniec-Zajt (The Yard, And Breathe Normally) is a portrait of the daily lives of people in a small village of Kvidinge in Skåne, filmed between May and September. Skoog’s feature debut will screen at this year’s CPH:DOX’s main competition programme. Another Plattform production is vying for the festival’s DOX: Award: A Stranger by Mikel Cee Karlsson. 

Upcoming films include Ninja Thyberg’s anticipated porn world drama Jessica, and Östlund´s English language film Triangle of Sadness set in the fashion world.