This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of directors Victor Sjöström and especially Ingmar Bergman; and more recently Roy Andersson, Lasse Hallström, Lukas Moodysson and Ruben Östlund.

), Lars Hanson, Warner Oland, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Kristina Söderbaum, Zarah Leander, Anita Ekberg, Ann-Margret, Viveca Lindfors, Signe Hasso, Mai Zetterling, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson, Ann Zacharias, Maud Adams, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Thulin, Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Agneta Eckemyr, Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, Sven-Bertil Taube, Bo Brundin, Dolph Lundgren, Joel Kinnaman, Melinda Kinnaman, Pernilla August, Peter Stormare, Lena Olin, Stellan Skarsgård, Malin Åkerman, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, Alicia Vikander, Izabella Scorupco, Noomi Rapace, Ola Rapace, Mikael Nyqvist, David Dencik, Helena Mattsson, Rebecca Ferguson, Fares Fares, and MyAnna Buringkeso.

During the next decade the company's two star-directors, Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, produced many silent films, some being adaptations of stories by the Nobel-prizewinning novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

Many of the films made at the Biografteatern had a significant impact on German directors of the silent and early sound eras, largely because Germany remained cut off from French, British, and American influences through World War I (1914–1918).

The global expansion of the United States after World War I had its consequences in the dynamics of cinema and changed previous favorable market conditions that benefited Sweden's film exports to Europe.

[6] The neutrality of Sweden could have been translated in the fortification of its film industry, which to some extent was true since its production grew relatively during this period, but its market share declined severely.

[9] The monopolistic organization of Svensk Filmindustri in 1919 and also its further model of co-productions with other European film companies are one of the first expressions of the paradox that characterized the attempt of consolidating simultaneously a national and a transnational cinema.

To make Swedish films more appealing to the audiences, the challenge was the maintenance of their specificity – stories with a background based on literature about Nordic countryside was one of the "national" trademarks[10] – with some aspects that made Hollywood successful, such as an agile narrative pace.

Flickan i frack (Girl in Tails, Karin Swanström, 1926), for example, represents the convergence of these different perspectives with its portrayal of an urban Stockholm contrasting with the countryside and the desire of the protagonist to become an independent woman but also to be recognized by the Swedish traditionalism.

The attempts of constructing a national cinema able to be also universal was a response to the Hollywood dominance, which, in the end, is the consequence of the consolidation of the United States economic supremacy; after all, European films were not able to develop the same capacity of escalation in production and exhibition.

During World War II Swedish cinema gained artistically, mainly due to the directors Gustaf Molander, Alf Sjöberg, Hasse Ekman, Anders Henrikson and Hampe Faustman.

In the 1960s, Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for two consecutive years, with The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) in 1960 and Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) in 1961.

Also starting his career working with Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman debuted in 1962 with The Mistress (Älskarinnan), but attracted far wider attention in Sweden when his film 491 was banned by Swedish censors due to its explicit sexual content.

Sjöman went on to cause even wider controversy, depicting sexual intercourse in his 1967 film I Am Curious (Yellow) (Jag är nyfiken – gul).

His later works include The Man from Majorca (Mannen från Mallorca), The Serpent's Way (Ormens väg på hälleberget) and All Things Fair (Lust och fägring stor).

Jan Troell started his career as Widerberg's director of photography, but could soon debut with his own film Here's Your Life (Här har du ditt liv).

They include, among others Docking the Boat (Att angöra en brygga), The Apple War (Äppelkriget), The Man Who Quit Smoking (Mannen som slutade röka), Release the Prisoners to Spring (Släpp fångarne loss – det är vår!

Andersson's return to filmmaking was a major success with the critics, earning him five Guldbagge Awards in Sweden for best film, direction, cinematography, screenplay and sound.

Lukas Moodysson's first feature-length film, Show Me Love (English language name for the controversial Swedish original title, Fucking Åmål) was a huge success in Sweden.

The 2002 Lilya 4-ever (Lilja 4-ever) is a dark, tragic story about trafficking in human beings, and the 2004 A Hole in My Heart (Ett hål i mitt hjärta) deals with an amateur porn movie recording, causing some controversy due to its shocking and disturbing footage.

Other young Swedish filmmakers that have seen major success in recent years include Lebanon-born director Josef Fares, with the comedies Jalla!

During the late 1990s early 2000s several young filmmakers started exploring genre-films which had earlier been almost non-existent, Mikael Håfström's slasher film Strandvaskaren, Anders Banke's vampire comedy Frostbite which was the first Swedish vampire film, Anders Jacobsson's satire Evil Ed and Måns Mårlind's and Björn Stein's fantasy-thriller Storm.