The neglect of Ingmar Bergman’s notes, manuscripts, plot summaries, sketches, photographs and other archival materials is an ‘international scandal’ according to Professor Astrid Söderbergh-Widding, a spokesperson for the Board of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation in Stockholm. 

The Swedish government provides 2m kroner (£146,000) of funding to the Foundation annually to maintain the archive, but twice this sum is needed in a one-off payment to digitize the collection of increasingly fragile documents it contains. The Swedish state ‘does not seem interested in providing the money we lack’ according to Professor Söderbergh-Widding.  There is also uncertainty as to whether the government will continue to back the archive, which employs five staffers, after the current round of funding ends in February.

Ingmar Bergman died in July 2007 at the age of 89.  He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and over 170 plays. His archive is part of Unesco's Memory of the World programme, which was set up to preserve such important works.  

Securing the financial future of the archive may depend on private philanthropy. Here have been indications that the Bonnier family, who own two of Sweden’s largest newspapers, have expressed an interest in the archive.  A spokesperson fo the family said "It is important not only to us - it is important for filmmakers, for scholars and for the Swedish culture that this heritage is not destroyed or wasted."  

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