Tulpa Creatives: Expanding Horizons in Swedish Cinema

Founded in 2019 by director Richard Jarnhed and producer Simon Kölle, Tulpa Creatives has grown from an audacious idea into a studio with a clear voice: character-driven, audience-minded, and unafraid to rethink how films get made and financed.

Our collaborations span multiple production companies, and while our heart beats for feature films and TV series, we’ve also delivered commercials and non-fiction that found wide audiences. Our first feature documentary, Glam, Sweat & Tears, about the golden era of glam rock and the cult band Tears was seen by over a million viewers on SVT. Our second followed two young Swedish women who built the country’s largest mental-health podcast into a movement; over three years we chronicled their fight to make adults listen and give students a voice.

Lotta Westberg (Jarowskij) & Richard Jarnhed (Tulpa Creatives) interviewed about TV-series Dystopia

Through the pandemic, we helped bring the Swedish TV series Dystopia to life, while developing several features, a TV series, and novels. In parallel, we dove deep into alternative financing—first with Auxality on the Indyfilm Investment Tool, which evolved into FrameSage, now an independent company in which Tulpa Creatives is a part-owner. Today FrameSage serves production companies, screenwriters, and producers around the world, with clients across Europe and the U.S. After being mentioned in Forbes, FrameSage has become a talked-about force in film finance. It is headquartered in Sweden and led by CEO Oskar af Rosenschöld, based in Copenhagen. Because the Tulpa Movie Slate (TMS) is FrameSage’s pilot slate, our partnership sits at the intersection of creativity and capital—precisely where we believe the future of independent cinema will thrive.

TMS comprises six feature films that blend European depth with American narrative drive. First out of the gate is Erase/Rewind. Alongside the slate, we’re adapting Annika Andebark’s novel Oväsen i Älvdalen into The Great Noise, a drama about Sweden’s 17th-century witch trials that has already stirred interest among funds and policymakers. We’ve made serious headway toward our €30M financing target, by design, not by habit favoring proactive models over the traditional Swedish playbook.

Innovation is cultural here. We were early movers in virtual production and continue to test and deploy cutting-edge workflows with world-class VFX partners. We’re equally forward-leaning in AI, embracing tools that sharpen development, planning, and post—always to serve story and empower creators.

Knowledge-sharing is part of our DNA. CEO Simon Kölle hosts Filmbranschpodden, Scandinavia’s most-listened-to film-industry podcast, and authored the widely discussed study Financial Viability and Investment Potential of Swedish Cinema (1965–2024). Co-founder Richard Jarnhed is a recurring guest and host at Stockholm Comic Con and a sought-after advisor on genre films and series. Henrik Summanen, our Head of Development, steers the creative pipeline with a sharp eye for emotional clarity and theme. Carl Kristoffersson, Head of Production (and a seasoned line producer), anchors our schedules and budgets. Joel Forssell, a Tulpa part-owner currently on leave at AI innovator Motorica, brings deep European VFX experience to our ecosystem.

Tulpa is also evolving from within. We’ve welcomed four new partners whose perspectives strengthen our next chapter:

• Filip Hammarström (Lead Story Editor) brings proven story-development chops from Palladium Fiction and Scandinavian Content Group, focusing on the emotional core of our films. Read Filip’s interview and introduction.

• Zishan Ahmad (partner and CSO) moves from advisory to co-ownership, applying strategic leadership from IT, finance, and operations to build Tulpa’s long-term roadmap. Read Zishan’s interview and introduction.

• Tobias Moe (partner) is a genre-loving, community-minded creative producer whose perspective on labor, craft, and culture energizes our slate. Read Tobias’s interview and introduction.

• Erik Bolin (partner and project leader) has led Sweden’s largest anti–street-violence movement, creating a film co-written and directed by Richard Jarnhed and has worked on projects addressing trafficking. His background as an actor and ACT therapist deepens our commitment to emotionally truthful storytelling. Read Erik’s interview and introduction.
  

Day-to-day, our operative core team is Simon Kölle, Richard Jarnhed, Henrik Summanen, Filip Hammarström, and Zishan Ahmad, a compact leadership circle designed to move fast, decide clearly, and deliver. Together with our partners and collaborators, we’re pressing into “Tulpa 3.0”: upgraded people, resources, network, and skill, so we can lead rather than being led.

The next chapter begins now, with Erase/Rewind and a slate that aims high, travels far, and speaks directly to audiences.