Göteborg launches 2020 Programme in Gender Parity year

“Achieving this 50/50 male/female director selection wasn’t difficult,” told artistic director Jonas Holmberg to nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “It was a challenging decision per se, but once we had set this as a goal, it was just about finding the right films to achieve this and help parity.” 

Swedish writer/director Maria Bäck is among five rising female directors who will vie for the coveted SEK 1 million (around €95,000) Dragon award for Best Nordic Feature Film.

Bäck’s debut feature Psychosis in Stockholm unspooling as a world premiere, is based on her own experience as a 14-year old girl, estranged in the capital city when her mother suddenly had a mental breakdown and left her all alone. “The film is very personal and stylistically very interesting, with surreal elements and heightened realism,” said Holmberg. The film produced by Garagefilm will be released domestically by TriArt on April 24.

Holmberg also stressed the presence in the main competition of Charter by Amanda Kernell who won a Dragon award in 2017 for her debut film Sami Blood. Her second film sold by TrustNordisk, will bow in Göteborg after its world premiere in Sundance.

Finland’s Jenni Toivoniemi will bring her debut film Games People Play, screening as a world premiere. The comedy about a group of hipsters in their 40s who reunite for a summer night, is sold by LevelK.

Denmark’s Malou Reymann will come straight from Rotterdam with her personal debut A Perfectly Normal Family, about growing up with a father who became a woman, while Norway’s Jorunn Myklebust Syversen will compete with Disco.

Male directors in the main competition include Iceland’s Grímur Hakonarson with The County, which premiered at Toronto.

Swedish TV personality and comedian Henrik Schyffert will introduce as a world premiere his directorial debut Spring Uje Spring, a hybrid biopic about musician Uje Brandelius, diagnosed with Parkinson disease. TriArt will release the Filmlance International production on March 20. Rounding up the main competition is the Norwegian drama Beware of Children by Dag Johan Haugerud, which world premiered at Venice Days. Picture Tree International represents Beware of Children and New Europe Film Sales handles A Perfectly Normal Family, Disco and The County.

The jury of the Nordic Competition comprising directors Mia Hansen, Sofia Norlin, Yonfan and producer Marianne Slot, will hand out the main Dragon award on February 1^st, 2020.

The Documentary competition programme has nine titles vying for the SEK 250,000 (€24,000) award, the largest cash prize in the Nordic region for a documentary film. Those are:

• Colombia in My Arms by Jussi Rastas & Jenni Kivistö (WP-Finland/Denmark/Norway), about Colombia’s FARC former soldiers as they try to go back to normal life.
• For Somebody Else by Sven Blume (WP-Sweden) dealing with surrogacy.
• The Last Circus Princess by Åsa Sjöström (WP-Sweden)
• Idomeni by Facing Genocide’s director David Aronowitsch (WP-Sweden)
• The Self Portrait by Margreth Olin, Katja Høgset and Espen Wallin (IP-Norway)
• It Takes a Family by Susanne Kovács (Swedish Premiere-Denmark)
• Meanwhile on Earth by Carl Olsson (Nordic premiere-Sweden/Estonia/Denmark)
• I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die by Eva Marie Rødbro, which world premiered at IDFA (Nordic premiere-Denmark)
• Typhoon Mama by Lou Strömberg (Int’l premiere-Finland).

Eight International debut films will vie for the Ingmar Bergman award, and another 18 films selected for the International Competition will run for the SEK 50,000 (€4,800) audience award.

Other highlights include a Nordic Honorary Dragon Award to star actor Stellan Skarsgård (just handed out his first Golden Globe Award-Best Supporting Actor for the HBO/Sky series Chernobyl), and a focus on Brazil with about 15 films. “I am very proud of this Focus, a sign of our support to our colleagues in Brazil and filmmakers who are under great political pressure,” noted Holmberg.

As part of Göteborg’s 50/50 Vision initiative for an equal film industry, various debates will focus on different aspects of feminism, while experimental filmmaker Anna Odell (The Reunion) will present her video work The Examination in which successful Swedish men such as author Jan Guillou, former Minister of Justice Thomas Bodström, are asked to sit in a gynaecological chair, in a vulnerable position, while debating about equality, power and empathy. Festival visitors will be invited to sit in a similar gynaecological chair to view Odell’s work.

The festival will close with the world premiere of Mårten Klinbgerg’s My Father Marianne starring Rolf Lassgård, Hedda Stiernstedt and Lena Endre. Loosely based on Ester Roxberg’s novel ‘My father Ann-Christine-the memory of a secret”, My Father Mary Anne is a heart-warming film about a young woman and her beloved father who suddenly tells her that he is actually a woman named Marianne. “Rolf Lassgård gives an astounding performance and I’m pleased to close the festival with the film aimed at a larger audience,” concluded Holmberg.

My Father Marianne, Psychosis in Stockholm, Beware of Children, Charter, The County and the documentary Colombia in My Arms are backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The Göteborg Film Festival unspools January 24-February 3, 2020. The programme for the industry events TV Drama Vision (January 29-30) and Nordic Film Market (January 30-February 2, 2020) will be announced next week.