It is hardly controversial to state that Ingmar Bergman is still almost exclusively defined as an art filmmaker and auteur in Sweden and, especially, beyond. This chapter focuses on some particular issues and areas that have largely fallen by the wayside within Bergman scholarship, in large part due to the historical, accumulative impact of auteurist approaches, and that arguably form the very antithesis of what is generally associated with Bergman – notably, popularity, fashion, superficiality. In this context, it is of no small interest that Bergman so skilfully, and well before the existence of professional public relations people and other spin doctors, was able to manipulate journalists at will, almost as a one-man show, literally directing them as if they were players on stage. If Bergman can be regarded as a celebrity, then gossip is a viable and necessary object of study.

Feminism and fashion are intimately connected in a myriad of ways: through their ethics and aesthetics (or their lack thereof); their urge to affect the status quo; their preformativity; and their “obsession” with gender. They also share a mutual history, with women's demands for economic, social, and political equality emerging alongside fashion becoming “democratized.” This chapter offers first a historical account of the relationship between the two, starting with a discussion of the critique of fashion which was articulated by the suffragette movement and how, at the same time, fashion came to play an important role for creating acceptance of that same movement. The chapter then discusses fashion's role for women's emancipation in the twentieth century, all while including a discussion of how fashion was critiqued by second and third wave feminists as embodied imprisonment and how fashion came to be “defended” by feminst fashion scholars at the end of that century. Finally, the chapter tries to offer an analysis of what fashion and feminism can “do for each other” at a point in time when the fashion industry is under severe pressure, and also, at a time when identity and feminist politics are being attacked from anti-democratic and extreme right-wing corners.

How issues of gender equality intertwine with age in the film industry is seldom addressed in studies focussing on film and gender equality behind the camera. It is symptomatic that when a recent gender equality report from the Swedish Film Institute (SFI, Vilka kvinnor? Jämställdhetsrapport 2019/20, https://www.filminstitutet.se/globalassets/_dokument/rapporter/vilka_kvinnor_jamstalldhetsrapport-2019-2020.pdf, 2020) set out to discuss age, the focus is on women actors “falling off the cliff” at the age of 40—as put by Gena Davies. This chapter presents a study based on qualitative interviews with women of various ages working behind the camera in the Swedish film industry. We discuss how these women speak about age and analyse their experiences using the concept of gendered ageism. A particular emphasis is put on two of Sweden’s most famous women directors, with major successes in the 1980s and 1990s—Suzanne Osten and Christina Olofson. This chapter also provides a more general discussion about how women of various ages reproduce a distinction between young and promising and mature and professional in their narration of how gendered age plays into their working conditions.

In the aftermath of the MeToo movement, during an ongoing pandemic, and in the midst of repeated demands for a 50/50 split between men and women in above-the-line positions, this book analyzes and interrogates the politics of gender focusing on the Swedish film industry, often considered to be the most "gender equal" film industry worldwide. While this gender equality (with a considerable proportion of women behind the camera) is much due to policies carried out of the state funded Swedish Film Institute, women filmmakers in Sweden still struggle with the same problems as do women in other national film industries. These problems entail having smaller production and distribution budgets than men and working in an environment involving recurring scandals of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

This open access book looks behind the statistics and explores the often complex cultural, legal, and political conditions under which women have entered a male-dominated industry and discusses women’s strategies and efforts to promote change while providing evidence on how women’s presence has challenged the industry by provoking critical reactions and introducing new ways to portray women on screen. Using a wide range of different sources (e.g. archival material, laws, contracts, films, biographical materials, and interviews), the book tells the history of the rise of gender equality efforts undertaken by the Swedish Film Institute and investigates women’s possibilities to manage the rights to their work. It offers compelling portraits of pioneering women who have worked in or in relation to the industry and looks at the experiences of women currently working in the film industry