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Mimmi Spång
Katarina Margareta Spång (born May 05, 1973), more known under the name Mimmi Spång, is a Swedish producer but has also acted as production manager among other things. She has been involved with and produced several films, some of the most known being the Swedish productions Sebbe and Call Girl.



Career
After graduating from the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (SADA) in 2001 (previously known as University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre) Spång was offered a position at Memfis Film, which she accepted. She worked at Memfis Film for the following three years and participated in several projects such as Zozo and Kopps in the role as first assistant director. Spång stated in an interview that she found her time at Memfis to be extremely enlightening but that she felt that what she wanted was to work as a producer. In order to fulfill this desire Spång founded her own company and was shortly thereafter hired by Garagefilm International where she has been employed since 2007. Today Spång is one of the co-owners of Garagefilm together with the original founders, Malte Forsell and Håkan Lindhé, and her long time producer partner, Rebecka Lafrenz.

Spång and Lafrenz first met as students at SADA in 1998. Since then they have followed each other from their graduation, to Memfis Film and lastly to Garagefilm where they both are currently employed and acting co-owners. Together they have produced several films among them being Sebbe, Call Girl and Cockpit. Spång and Lorenz were in 2011 chosen to represent Sweden in European Film Promotions Producers on the Move at the film festival in Cannes the same year. In 2011 the duo were also awarded the prestigious Lorens prize for producers at the Gothenburg Film festival.

“The choice is obvious. Without Garagefilm, their commitment, knowledge and courage, the Swedish film industry would be poorer,” commented the Swedish Film Institute’s international chief, Pia Lundberg, about sending Spång and Lafrenz to Cannes.

Some of the films Spång has been involved with have received various types of criticism. Call Girl was critiqued for insinuating that one of Sweden’s previous prime ministers, Olof Palme, participated in purchasing sexual favors from minors. Both Palme’s son, Mårten Palme, and several other people reacted strongly to this depiction, finding it offensive and tainting. The director and writers attempt to explain that everything in the film was purely fiction was discarded as cowardly by the Swedish newspaper SvD:s head of culture, Mårten Jönsson. SvD tried to reach Spång for a comment but was unable as she was otherwise engaged with filming new project.

In 2012 the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish institute arranged a film festival in Bangkok, Thailand. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (Daily News) later reported that the organization of this festival in part was an attempt to sell JAS aircraft. Several filmmakers that were somehow involved with the festival were outraged when finding out that their work could be connected to the selling of war machines. Spång were among these filmmakers and stated, “ We really don’t want any of our films to contribute to weapon export. We find it absolutely appalling.”

In 2013, SFI’s Film room held a conference called Film Politics 2020, inviting different Swedish filmmakers to speak about and discuss film politics. Among those invited, Spång was one of the representatives for Swedish producers together with Peter ”Piodor” Gustafsson. Spång stated that she believes in quotation for the development of Swedish film production to begin it's evolvement concerning human variety in the film industry.

Awards and Nominations
Spångs career got off to a good start when her graduation-project Viktor and his Brothers won the Swedish film award Guldbaggen for best Short Film in 2002. Several of the projects Spång has been involved with has recieved multiple awards and nominations for production, crew as well as cast. A SOAP received the Silver Bear and Best Debut in Berlin in 2006. In 2009 Heaven’s Heart was awardarded a Guldbaggen. Spång produced the feature film Guidance which was nominated for the Dragon Award at the Göteborg International Film Festival and the New Talent Award in CPH Pix. Sebbe was nominated for the Dragon Award 2010 and was also named Best First Feature Film at the Berlinale 2010. In 2011 Sebbe won a Guldbagge for Best Picture. Call Girl was awarded four Guldbagge awards as well as several international festival prizes.