Scandinavian Film Funds, a new movie-financing company, will launch Sunday in Cannes with a mission to invest in and distribute up to 50 feature films out of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland over the next six years.

The company will finance minimum guarantees for distribution, as well as offering equity investment and bridge financing. “Any project with a strong audience potential will be thoroughly evaluated, while mainly focusing on mid-size to large-budgeted features,” said CEO and fund manager Christian Bévort, who was previously a board director at Sweden’s Metronome.

Sune Lind Thomsen, former head of theatrical distribution at SF Studios Denmark, will serve as the chief commercial officer and head of distribution. “We will offer best-in-class distribution by combining an experienced creative team with the best digital marketing strategy people,” Thomsen said. “Understanding the nature of feature film creative processes is the core, but knowing how to position your film and be effective in reaching the audiences is more important than ever.”

Veteran producer Kim Magnusson, who will be head of creative and work closely with producers and studios on development and production, said: “Producers and studios are in general locked in a relatively small industry with a quite firm structure and few choices. We can now offer an alternative financing source that has been lacking in recent years.”

Projects will be evaluated by a group of readers and investments greenlit by a board of industry experts. Bévort said he hopes other players in the industry will be open to co-finance projects.

“With a total of 50 to 60 relevant feature film projects a year throughout the Nordics, we will welcome any producer or studio in the future,” Bévort said. “We see the Scandinavian initiative, rather than anything else, as an opportunity to expand the industry and secure even more films coming out of one of the strongest regions in the world.”